Mary Guy Shellman Campbell
By: Margaretta Wells
Mary Campbell was a blithe spirit whose time in Chiang Mai was all too brief. She came about 1924 and Dr. Campbell retired in 1936.
But Chiang Mai was not her first experience of Siam. Mary Gut Shellman Campbell arrived in 1906 with her husband, Carl J. Shellman, M.D. They were assigned to Pitsanuloke, a provincial capital where a hospital was to be established. The energy and expertise of the new doctor together with his willingness to go any time, any place, soon made him beloved and respected by the whole community.
Mary Shellman devoted herself to making a comfortable home for the doctor and their two little sons, Guy and Lawrence.
There was no girls’ school in Pitsanuloke but there were a few women who wanted to learn. They came to the verandah of the Shellman home and learned to read and write. Soon the verandah was filled to capacity. By 1913, when twenty-five girls came every day, a school called Padoongnari was organized. A thatched roofed sala was built in front of the hospital for a temporary school. Mary Shellman, a graduate of Macalester College (St. Paul, Minn) was the principal. She had one woman teacher to help her. In 1915 Miss Helen McClure came out to take charge of the school. While Mary Shellman still taught English and Bible, she was relieved of the administrative duties and the training of teachers.
Then tragedy struck March 21st, 1919 was the closing entertainment for the school, as the hot season was approaching. Cholera had broken out in the community and the doctor was busy with many patients. So swift is this disease that Carl Shellman died March 22nd before anyone knew he had contracted it. Mary Shellman and her two sons returned to the United States. Later, when the boys were in college, Mary Shellman was married to the Rev. Dr. Howard Campbell and her second era of service in Siam began.
The Campbells lived in the big, old, comfortable McGilvary house, the heart of the evangelistic work. There she exerted a wide and gracious influence in homes, schools and women’s organizations both in the city and throughout the province, even unto remote villages. Her name was a symbol of hospitality.
She began work for young people. There were wonderful party meetings twice each month for the young teachers in all the schools and the nurses in the hospital. We stopped by as she was setting up the verandah for one of these meetings. She said, “I’ve just been counting by tables. I have forty-four.” Still the house never seemed overpowered by furniture. It was so large and gracious it could absorb forty-four tables.
Mary Campbell was a delightful hostess. In speaking to her servants she usually said “Oh” before each name. One she said, “All my servants are Irish, O Heng, O Kao, O Bua Kham.” She had almost constant company. Strange people came for several days and stayed for weeks. There was Malvin Hoffman the sculptor, the Carle Zimmermans making an economic survey, Khun Ying Medtha, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Rambai, a buyer from Gump’s in San Francisco looking for antiques. She prowled the little shops with him. She had people in precarious health sent up to Chiang Mai for rest cures who pursued her onto the mountain so that her brief vacations were full of concern for others.
The church women’s meeting in mid-December was always particularly gala. At that time the women were busy making the flowers to go one the ‘tribute’ tree. Everyone sat on the floor surrounded by confusion and gold paper busy with scissors and paste. I used to think, “I wish Mrs. McGilvary could see her front porch now. I am sure she would like it.” At noon, delicious food was set out and everyone relaxed. By mid-afternoon the beautiful ‘tribute tree’ for the Christmas Eve service was finished.
Mary Campbell was one of the first editors of THE SIAM OUTLOOK. This was a quarterly magazine sponsored by the Mission. It was devoted to all phases of Mission work, stories of interesting Thai people, visiting clergy, short articles on arts and crafts or accounts of trips into surrounding countries. One issue was composed of all the station reports for the year. It was very useful to missionaries who would subscribe to it (fifty cents a year) for friends, family and supporting churches in lieu of letters. The subscription list was about 500 copies. It was a lot of work. The editor had to secure interesting [stories], copy, prepare it for the printer and type up all the 500 address slips. The quarterly was then mailed out from the print shop in Bangkok. It was a very good little magazine. It was a casualty of the war, so is now a collector’s item.
Mary Campbell by precept, example, her radiant personality and just plain hard work contributed her full share toward the church in Siam. To the young Thai, who came to the United States for study, she was a home away from home, their counselor and guide.
Sources:
Presbyterian Historical Society, Kenneth and Margaretta Wells Collection, “Complete 1950, 1969, 1980s-1995 and Undated ‘Wives of the Six Musketeers of the North and Women of Faith material.’” (Box 7, Folder 13)
