Background
He was born 16 May 1828, in North Carolina, United States of America and, after a largely informal education, taught school until he entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1853.
He was born 16 May 1828, in North Carolina, United States of America and, after a largely informal education, taught school until he entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1853.
He graduated from Princeton in 1856 and returned to North Carolina to pastor two rural churches.
He was ordained in 1857. The McGilvarys worked alone for one year and were chiefly responsible for the conversion of six men by early 1869. From 1870 until roughly 1890 McGilvary was the unofficial leader of the Laos Mission and took the leading hand in expanding its work including establishing several rural Christian communities which became important Christian centers.
In 1878 he played a leading role in obtaining the so-called "Proclamation of Religious Toleration" from the Thai central government, which gave certain civil rights to northern Thai converts.
McGilvary took a number of exploratory tours, beginning in the 1870s, going as far as the Shan States in Burma and Yunnan Province in Southern China in the 1890s. Those tours inspired the Laos Mission with the vision of a greater mission to the Tai peoples of China and French Indochina, a vision which dominated mission work until the 1920s.
McGilvary supported theological training for northern Thai evangelists and pastors. He took a leading role in promoting central Thai literacy among the northern Thai and he played an important role in promoting mission school education, particularly female education.
In 1888 McGilvary established a school in Chiang Saen District, Chiang Rai Province, that was moved to Chiang Rai city and eventually became Chiang Rai Witthayakhom School, the oldest school in Northern Thailand.
McGilvary is also credited with introducing Western medicine into Northern Siam. He continued active evangelistic work, including visiting established Christian groups, up until his death on 22 August 1911, in Chiang Mai.