Although the work at Bangkok had been steadily growing, no
extension of the field was undertaken until 1861, when a station
was opened at Petchaburi, where Dr. House and Mr. Mattoon had
made several visits. In that year two new missionaries with their
wives had come out in company with Rev. and Mrs. Mattoon on their
return from furlough in America; these were Rev. S. G. McFarland
and Rev. N. A. McDonald. Of the many places where the missionaries
had visited with the hopes of one day establishing a local work,
Petchaburi then seemed the most favourable because the acting
governor had personally solicited the missionaries to provide
teaching of English; and had offered, on condition that they would
teach his son the language, to provide a place for their school.
The Mission had voted to assign Dr. and Mrs. House to establish the
new station. The doctor visited the field, procured a lot and made
ready for the work, and then returned to bring his wife. But the
day before their departure, the doctor had the misfortune to fall
from a horse, sustaining injuries which, at the time, it was feared
would prove to be permanent. Under these circumstances the mission
changed the appointment, and sent instead Revs. Daniel McGilvary
and S. G. McFarland with their wives, who thus became the first
occupants of the new mission.
At this point it will be interesting to note that in his journal,
in 1861, Dr. House records that the missionaries had felt
constrained to ask the Board for an increase in salary from the
prevailing six hundred dollars to seven hundred dollars, giving
as a reason that the cost of living had greatly increased since
the country had been opened to Western commerce, so that articles
of provisions had in some cases increased as much as one hundred
per cent. Dr. House himself had received a patrimony at the death
of his father, which he used not only to supplement his salary
for living expenses, but very generously for assisting in the
work of the mission. Entries in the journal indicate that he had
undertaken, at his own expense, repairs and enlargement of the
mission house in which he lived.