Samuel Gamble McFarland was born on December 11, 1830 in Washington County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of William and Mary (McKenahan) McFarland and the grandson of Samuel McFarland who emigrated from the North of Ireland to Pennsylvania about 1793.
McFarland graduated from Washington (now Washington and Jefferson) College in 1857 with the degree of A. B. , studied theology in the Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, 1857-60, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Washington (Pa. ) and commissioned for Siam in April 1860.
McFarland reached Bangkok September 15, 1860. After a year of language study he was assigned, together with Rev. Daniel McGilvary, to open at Petchaburi the first station outside the capital. It fell to his lot to construct the early buildings for the mission, in fulfillment of which task he found it necessary not only to draw plans but to supervise the brick-making and lumber mill and to direct the workmen item by item in the process of construction. When funds failed for the school building he appealed to the Siamese who were sympathetic with the work and in response received half the required amount from the king and the balance from princes and nobles. The first Siamese to be licensed to the gospel ministry was trained by him.
His acquaintance with the language and his achievement in his school work commended him to King Chulalongkorn, who was then purposing to initiate the work of education by the government. As the first step in the realization of his plan, he appointed McFarland, in 1878, principal of the proposed royal school for princes and sons of nobles. To accept this appointment McFarland resigned his commission as missionary. His new task involved the laying out of a curriculum together with a standard of grades and examinations, the enlistment of a faculty and provision for future training of teachers, and the adaptation and translation of suitable textbooks. All this had to be accomplished despite the opposition of a conservative council which was imbued with reactionism against the progressive policies of the king. He succeeded, however, by the exercise of tact and a sympathetic understanding of his co-workers, who at the same time had confidence in his wisdom. Sharing the king's vision of a future national system of education, in developing the royal school he laid the foundations for the system of universal compulsory education which was eventually established. On account of broken health, however, he was obliged to resign, in 1896, before the scheme was completed. He died in Canonsburg, Pa. , the following year.
McFarland became a thorough scholar in the Siamese language, mastering both the idiom and the pronunciation so that in its oral use he was as proficient as an educated native. His versatility is further shown in the publication (1876) of a Siamese hymnbook, the first to include tunes. In this undertaking it was necessary for him to teach the translator each separate tune to enable him to provide the correct meter; he then supervised the making of the plates in the United States, and finally printed the book at Petchaburi on a wooden press which he himself had made. The literary work accredited to him includes An English-Siamese Dictionary (1865), which went through a number of editions; the hymnbook previously mentioned; translations into Siamese of the Pentateuch, the Minor Prophets, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, and a Bible textbook; together with original works, written in Siamese, on Church history, Christian evidences, botany, geology, bookkeeping; and numerous sermons and tracts.
On the 3rd of May McFarland married Jane E. Hays, daughter of John Hays of Canonsburg, Pa. To this union four children were born.
