My family and I lived in Laurel , Maryland , from 1984 to 1987 while I was doing graduate work at the University of Maryland . During that time, we became involved in the life of the Laurel Presbyterian Church, and in the course of things I offered to write the history of the congregation. They took me up on the offer, and the church published the final product of my research in 1986. That experience afforded me a fascinating glimpse into the history of the Southern Presbyterian Church, the State of Maryland , and the city of Laurel , as well as the church itself. It was also a good experience because of the strong support and encouragement that the congregation and its pastor, the Rev. Frank Hayes, gave me throughout the research and writing process. "LPC" was a relatively strong congregation in the 1980s, in part because of the close relationships between its members. We were fortunate to have shared in those relationships and to have made the congregation our church home, if even for a brief period of time.

In early June 2004, my wife, Warunee, and I visited Laurel and attended worship at "LPC" for the first time since we'd left in 1987. Old friends there greeted us warmly, and it was gratifying for me to be remembered by them as "the guy who wrote our history." It was also gratifying to learn that the congregation has placed my history of the church on their website ( Link ). The current pastor of the congregation assured me that the church continues to make use of history and that she herself found it helpful in her D.Min. studies.

The History of the Laurel Presbyterian Church is apparently out of place on a website devoted to the study of the Thai church, but I feel that it is fitting that it be included here. The three years that I spent in the United States up to 1987 were a period of preparation for my impending return to Thailand to do church history research under the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT). My studies at the University of Maryland comprised an important part of that preparation, and the work I did on the history of the Laurel Church was another part. I expected to emphasize local church research when I returned to Chiang Mai, and in writing the history of LPC I was experimenting with ways to do local church history. What readers fine here, that is, represents something of a prolegomenon to my research and writing in Thailand from 1988 down to the present. So, there is a connection to Thailand , at least for me and my family.

I also hope, however, that websearchers and websurfers may come across this history and find it helpful in its own right. In a modest way, it offers insights into the histories mentioned above, as well as providing a very little slice of the American pie from the 1860s through the 1970s. The story of the Laurel Presbyterian Church is a very special piece of the pie, a history of a fine group of people who lived their lives "in between"—in between Baltimore and Washington, in between the South and the North, and in between America 's rural past and suburban present.

Unlike the electronic version of Khrischak Muang Nua, also on this website, I have made no changes in this version. It reads just as it did in 1986. The LPC electronic version, however, has a number of errors introduced by scanning, and I have corrected all that I found. The scanner especially had trouble distinguishing "1" from "7" and "0" from "8," which played some havoc with dates. Otherwise, the text is the original. I don't know if I was happy with it then, but by-and-large I am now.

Herb Swanson
Ban Dok Daeng
August 2004

A Note on Citation: Although the text of this electronic edition is virtually the same as the original, I have not preserved the original pagination. Therefore, users of this edition should cite it only and not the original.

The original citation is: Herbert R. Swanson. History of the Laurel Presbyterian Church . Laurel , Maryland : Laurel Presbyterian Church, 1986.