author
Daniel McGilvary
1828–1911
A pioneering American missionary in nineteenth-century Siam, he helped open Protestant work in the north and became closely tied to the early history of Chiang Mai’s Christian communities. His long years in Thailand also produced a vivid firsthand memoir of travel, medicine, education, and faith on the frontier.
1 Audiobook
A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lāo: An Autobiography
by Daniel McGilvary
About the author
Born in Moore County, North Carolina, in 1828, Daniel McGilvary studied for the Presbyterian ministry and sailed to Siam in 1858. After early work in Bangkok and Phetchaburi, he became one of the central figures in expanding Protestant mission work into northern Siam, especially around Chiang Mai.
McGilvary is best remembered for helping establish the Laos Mission in the 1860s and for supporting churches, schools, and medical efforts in the region. Accounts of his life describe him as a respected and determined missionary whose influence reached beyond church life into education and public health.
He spent more than fifty years in Siam and died in Chiang Mai in 1911. His autobiography, A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lao, remains an important window into missionary life and the wider social world of Thailand in the nineteenth century.