1844 Rufus Anderson (8 Page ALS) Describing Early Bangkok, Siam Missionary Work For Sale
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1844 Rufus Anderson (8 Page ALS) Describing Early Bangkok, Siam Missionary Work:
$2030.63
1844 Rufus Anderson Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) to Siam Mission — 8 PagesMissionary History – Dan Beach Bradley, Jesse Caswell, Thailand – Rare A.B.C.F.M. ContentOffered here is an extraordinary 8-page autograph letter signed (ALS) by Rufus Anderson (1796–1880), Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (A.B.C.F.M.), dated December 21, 1844, and addressed to Rev. Charles Robinson in Bangkok, Siam (modern-day Thailand).
This letter is a rich, insightful document that discusses the state of the Siam mission, key personnel, reporting practices, the challenges of mission work in China, and the theological philosophy of suffering and conversion. It mentions several major missionary figures involved in shaping American religious engagement in Southeast Asia, including Dr. Dan Beach Bradley, Jesse Caswell, and others.
Letters of this length, content, and condition—especially from the early 1840s in Siam—are exceedingly rare and valuable both to collectors and institutions.
Historical SignificanceThis letter is a snapshot of American Protestant missionary expansion in Asia during the mid-19th century. Rufus Anderson was the intellectual architect behind the A.B.C.F.M.'s mission philosophy, emphasizing indigenous church planting, direct evangelism, and the moral preparation of mission fields.
The Siam mission, one of the earliest and most culturally impactful American outposts in Asia, played a central role in introducing modern education, medicine, and printing to Thailand. This letter critiques and encourages various field strategies, discusses moving missionaries to China, and reflects Anderson’s deeply theological approach to missionary service and suffering.
Condition8 handwritten pages on 4 folded sheets
Ink remains clear and legible throughout
Minor edge wear and light staining typical of 19th-century correspondence
Includes final signature page with Rufus Anderson’s full autograph and the address to Rev. Charles Robinson in Bangkok, Siam
Missionary House, Boston
December 21, 1844
To the Siam Mission,
Dear Brethren,
I am getting once more into circumstances to resume my correspondence and shall reply to your letters. They are as follows:
Tabular view for 1843; Annual report for 1843.
Mr. Johnson, dated Feb. 6, 12 and sections of the preaching which I had written; also Feb. 12th.
Dr. Bradley, Jan. 11th & Feb. 29th.
Mr. Caswell, Feb. 29th.
Mr. Hemenway, Jan. 1st, with something of a note.
Mr. Peet, Jan. 17th.
Miss Pierce, Feb. 28th.
I also had an opportunity last week for a few interesting conversations with Mr. Buel, who with his wife and two children had just arrived from Cape Town. They are on their way to...
Mr. Buel gives a favorable account of your field, speaking very favorably of your mission.
Your letter on printing, etc., is perhaps the most interesting and valuable we have received on the subject. It was taken with interest. The Committee are ready, I am sure, to go into the matter. I presume they will think it best to have your correspondence, and that, as well as the other departments, center in the Missionary House.
We are glad to receive such full reports as Mr. Hemenway gave us of his last six months of the year 1843. I would suggest the propriety of your accompanying your journal of tours with a map of travels, embracing within it the districts you should hope to do more with in population, etc. etc. Even in defining the people, or the town, if not in the text, the distance between place and place, if not the most exact things, we will give. This adds to the value of your communications always, and also to their interest.
At any rate, brethren are putting up codes of them, and they wish at home volumes of letters from the missions. A knowledge of difficulties is now knowledge.
Your tabular returns for 1843 did not reach us till Aug. 19th. It is very desirable that we receive them by our agent for the year—not so late as July. It will be worth while to send duplicates of those more safely each way, by Mr. Joseph Symes, our agent in London (2 Broad Street Buildings—secure them!).
It is very inconvenient getting these things after we had met your messages by a vote in front of your foreign written report at the close of each written. Your annual report was received July 9th; your tabular view Aug. 19th. I doubt, accordingly, they did not come with the rest.
The letter from Bangkok led us to fear that his earthly labor would soon end. May he be long spared.
Our Committee are not yet able to see the expediency of Messrs. Johnson & Oast’s removal to China. I say this with Mr. Peet’s letter written in behalf of your views in mind.
We are of the opinion that China, and the better field on which to be at the Chinese, than any provincial station however numerous. But there is no understanding it—your Chinese field, though not as good as we might hope to find in China itself, is a good one; far better than the northern kind in Borneo; better than you would have in Ningpo, for example.
We refer also, accordingly, in relation to the phrase in the R. 5th, doubting, etc., that Messrs. Doty & Pohlman should commence a new mission in China.
There is a great crowding of different opinions. Your field being, nevertheless, the only one we now see where all this is to tend.
Our mission in China is rather at loose ends (as to people), and are burdened with much illness, alternating hands, and very shifting of the stock.
They are occupied too in medicine, surgery, authorship, printing, etc., and there appears to be very little direct attack and preaching of the gospel. I say not this in dispraise of our good brethren there, but simply to state such seems to be the fact.
We hesitate to remove any of your number there till the outlook is more definite. You were considered rather incidentally superior and qualified in it more. But, till we could tell where we could labor hardest, we would be a bit in that spirit.
We feel that the mission in Siam cannot afford to lose the two brethren, because it will leave our principal there at present, reinforcing it. It will be two or three years before the number of our candidates will be such that any more can be spared. And, besides, we do not see where all this is to tend.
I intently thank you for among the sincere though perhaps along with ill passionate that was changing the Lord. His course is not to be eclipsed in this rebellious world except through suffering; and his peace will be sufficient for you.
I feel more and more interest in those imprisoned convicts. I feel more and more the value of such trophies, and of efforts that through divine grace lead to them.
I am, Dear Brother, with affectionate regards to each and greetings in Him,
Yours in love,
Rufus Anderson
Secretary, A.B.C.F.M.
Rufus Anderson (1796–1880) – Secretary of the A.B.C.F.M., one of the most influential Protestant missionary leaders of the 19th century.
Rev. Charles S. Robinson – Missionary to Siam in the early 1840s; correspondent and field administrator.
Dr. Dan Beach Bradley (1804–1873) – Introduced smallpox vaccination and modern printing to Siam; editor of Thailand’s first newspaper.
Jesse Caswell (1809–1848) – Tutor to Prince Mongkut (King Rama IV); central figure in Thai modernization.
William Hemenway – Active missionary in Bangkok whose reports were praised for depth and clarity.
David O. Peet – Long-serving missionary known for translation and representing the mission to Boston.
Miss Sarah P. Pierce – Female missionary who worked on girls’ education and moral instruction in Siam.
Samuel R. Johnson – Missionary to the Chinese in Southeast Asia; involved in discussions about expanding to China.
Doty & Pohlman – Early American missionaries who helped establish the Amoy Mission in China.
Mr. Buel – Visiting missionary en route from Cape Town who shared recent observations with Anderson.
Reasons Why This Is ValuableRare early letter from 1844
Signed by one of the most influential figures in U.S. missionary history
References major players in Thai-American religious history
8 pages, complete, handwritten and legible makes this one of the larger pieces available to the public.
Ships flat and fully protected.
Transcript can be provided digitally by request.
Questions welcome!
1844 Rufus Anderson (8 Page ALS) Describing Early Bangkok, Siam Missionary Work
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