author
Daniel McGilvary
1828–1911
A pioneering Presbyterian missionary in 19th-century Siam, he spent more than fifty years helping establish churches, schools, and medical work in what is now northern Thailand. His long career made him one of the best-known Protestant figures in Chiang Mai and the surrounding region.
1 Audiobook
A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lāo: An Autobiography
by Daniel McGilvary
About the author
Born in North Carolina in 1828, Daniel McGilvary studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained before leaving for Siam in the late 1850s. After early work in Bangkok and Phetchaburi, he became one of the key figures in bringing Protestant missions to the north.
He is especially associated with Chiang Mai, where he helped expand Christian work under difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. Accounts of his life describe him as a patient organizer as well as an evangelist, involved not only in church planting but also in education and medical efforts that gave the mission a lasting local presence.
McGilvary later wrote about his experiences in A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lao, an autobiography that remains an important firsthand record of missionary life in the region. He died in 1911, after decades of service that left a strong mark on the history of Christianity in Thailand.