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James and Laura McKean

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James William McKean
Born(1860-03-10)March 10, 1860
Iowa, U.S.
DiedFebruary 9, 1949(1949-02-09) (aged 88)
Los Angeles U.S.
Other namesJames W. McKean
Occupation(s)Doctor of Medicine
Missionary
Entomologist
Years active1889–1931
Known forrunning a leprosy hospital at Chiang Mai
Laura Bell McKean
Born(1870-01-30)January 30, 1870
Clinton, Iowa, U.S.
DiedMarch 23, 1949(1949-03-23) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, U.S.
Other namesLaura Bell Willson
Occupation(s)Missionary
Entomologist
Years active1889–1931

Dr. James William McKean (1860–1949) was an American doctor and Presbyterian Missionary who worked in Thailand, supported by his wife Laura Bell McKean (née Wilson, 1870–1949).

James McKean ran a leprosy hospital at Chiang Mai. The site still exists today as the McKean Senior Centre, a support institute for older people.[1]

The McKeans took up entomology as a hobby, and are credited with the first scientific collection of two insect species from Thailand.[2][3]

Family

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James: James William McKean was born in Iowa on 10 March 1860[4] to Hugh Clark McKean (a doctor, 1829–1865) and Elizabeth (nee McGrew, 1834–1866).[5] As a small child, McKean lived in Scotch Grove, Iowa.[5] McKean studied medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical College.[6] At the age of 22 in 1882 McKean married Nellie Laura Banton (1861–1886)[7] and the couple had two daughters, Ethel (1883–1960) and Elizabeth (1885–1886). Elizabeth, and then Nellie, died in 1886.[8][citation needed]

Laura: Laura Bell McKean was born Laura Bell Willson on 30 January 1870 at Clinton, Iowa to parents Henry (a businessman and foreman of the United States Wind, Engine and Pump Company) and Kate (née Van Camp).[9][10][11]

James and Laura married at Douglas County, Nebraska on 29 August 1889.[10][11] Shortly after their marriage the couple headed for Thailand where they began their Missionary work.[10] James and Laura had two children: Katherine (born c. 1890)[12] and James Hugh McKean (b.1893).[13]

Medical missionary work

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When the McKeans arrived in Thailand they joined Missionary Daniel McGilvary, who had been working in Thailand since 1858.[14][15] McGilvary had overseen the introduction of quinine use and smallpox vaccination to Thailand.[16]

Within an hour of arriving in Chiang Mai, James McKean was called to treat his first medical patient, and his early operations were performed on the porch of his bungalow.[17] Dr McKean realised that a better medical facility was needed, and appealed to the McCormick family of Chicago who funded the building of a hospital.[17] McKean felt that separating Leprosy patients from the rest of the community and caring for them separately was the best hope of eradicating the disease in Thailand, as had been done in Europe, and he appealed for land for constructing a hospital to the governor of Chiang Mai who gifted part of an island near the city.[18]

Dr McKean oversaw building of a vaccine laboratory at the Chiang Mai hospital in 1904.[19] The hospital then employed 140 men to evangelize, distribute medicines and vaccines.[18] McKean had particular regard for a man named Ai Keo, who worked at the hospital as Head Nurse and Steward: "faithful to every duty, constant, kind and unselfish in the care of our poor sufferers, I verily believe Ai Keo has done more for his own people than any Lao man that ever lived."[19]

Dr James McKean and Laura retired and returned to the United States in 1931.[20]

Entomology

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In February 1928 The McKeans were visited at Chiang Mai by Theodore Cockerell, Wilmatte Cockerell, and Alice Mackie, who had travelled from Bangkok, taking advantage of recent railway construction.[21][22] The Cockerell party and the McKeans went to Doi Suthep to collect insects and plants. Theodore Cockerell noted that the humanitarian activities of American missionaries like the McKeans, plus American Rockefeller-sponsored programmes to eliminate hookworm in Thailand, had led to his party being received with goodwill wherever they went in the country.[21]

The McKeans sent Theodore Cockerell insects from Chiang Mai including a cranefly they had collected in 1928 that Cockerell found 'extremely handsome', new to science, and which he named Tipula (Tipulodina) mckeani.[2] Laura McKean also collected a moth at Doi Suthep described and named Daeochaeta mckeanae in her honour by Theodore Cockerell in 1930.[3][23]

References

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  1. ^ "Chiang Mai: McKean Senior Center". Chiang Mai à La Carte. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  2. ^ a b Cockerell, T.D.A. (June 1929). "A Beautiful Crane-Fly from Siam". Psyche. XXXVI (2): 147–148. doi:10.1155/1929/41929 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  3. ^ a b Cockerell, T. D. A. (February 1930). "A New Moth from Siam". Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society. XXV (1): 42–43 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  4. ^ "U.S., Consular Registration Certificates, 1907–1918 for James W McKean [1908: Bangkok, Siam: Certificate of Registration: American Citizen: Volume 21: 10160]". ancestry.co.uk.
  5. ^ a b "James McKean in the 1860 United States Federal Census [1860: Iowa: Scotch Grove Township: page 89]". ancestry.co.uk.
  6. ^ "Dr James McKean | International Leprosy Association – History of Leprosy". leprosyhistory.org. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  7. ^ "James W McKean in the Iowa, U.S., Marriage Records, 1880–1948 [1882: Marriage Record: 307 (Adair-Dubuque): record 193]". ancestry.co.uk.
  8. ^ Elizabeth McKean died on 13 November 1886 and Nellie McKean on 5 Dec 1886. They are buried at Fairview Cemetery, Farley, Dubuque County, Iowa.
  9. ^ "Laura B McKean in the U.S., Passport Applications, 1795–1925 [American Consulate: Laura B. McKean: Consular form 176b: Emergency Passport Application: Issued Bangkok 12 March 1921]". ancestry.co.uk.
  10. ^ a b c "McKean-Wilson". Omaha Daily Bee. 30 August 1889. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b "Laura B. Willson in the Nebraska, U.S., Select County Marriage Records, 1855–1908 [1889: Marriage License Record: State of Nebraska: Douglas County: page 438]". ancestry.co.uk.
  12. ^ "Katherine McKean in the Iowa State Census, 1905: Residence place Delaware, Iowa, data supplied by The State Historical Society, Des Moines, Iowa.]". ancestry.co.uk.
  13. ^ "James Hugh McKean in the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 [Michigan: Van Buren County: Draft Card M: 5 June 1917]". ancestry.co.uk.
  14. ^ "Dr James McKean | International Leprosy Association – History of Leprosy". leprosyhistory.org. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  15. ^ McKean, Laura (1896). "Rev. Daniel McGilvary, D.D., Pioneer Missionary to the Lao". The Missionary Review of the World. 9 (May 1896): 368–369 – via Google Books.
  16. ^ "Editorial Notes". Woman's Work: A Foreign Missions Magazine. XXXI (5): 98. May 1916 – via Archive.org.
  17. ^ a b Erdman, Mabel H. (1942). Answering Distant Calls: Volume IV. Association Press. p. 90.
  18. ^ a b Hospitals in Siam. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. 1903. pp. 7–10 – via Archive.org.
  19. ^ a b Allen, Belle J (191). A Crusade of Compassion for the Healing of the Nations. The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions. pp. 148–149 – via Internet Archive.
  20. ^ Danner, Lois Elizabeth (August 1931). "A Pioneer Doctor in "The Land of the White Elephant"". Woman's Missionary Society: 377–378 – via Archive.org.
  21. ^ a b Cockerell, T.D.A. (1929). "The Flora of Doi Suthep, Siam". Torreya. 29 (6): 159 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  22. ^ "Diary of Alice Barringer Mackie". University of Colorado Boulder. pp. 70–77.
  23. ^ "Daseochaeta mackeanae Cockerell, 1930". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
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