Background
Daniel McGilvary was born on May 16, 1828 in Moore County, North Carolina. He was the son of Malcolm McGilvary and his wife, Catharine McIver.
Daniel McGilvary was born on May 16, 1828 in Moore County, North Carolina. He was the son of Malcolm McGilvary and his wife, Catharine McIver.
McGilvary received his academic education in the private academy of Rev. William Bingham at Hillsboro, from which he graduated in 1849. He served as principal of a new academy at Pittsboro for four years, then entered Princeton Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1856.
After a brief pastorate at Carthage, in his native state, he was appointed to the Siam mission of the Presbyterian Church, and was ordained, December 11, 1857, by the Presbytery of Orange, N. C. He reached Bangkok in June of the following year. In 1861, with Rev. Samuel G. McFarland, he was appointed to open a new station at Petchaburi. There he came into contact with a colony of Lao war captives and discovered that their language varied but slightly from the Siamese, although they used a different written character. Finding that these people were more willing to receive his message than the Siamese, he made an exploratory trip into the Lao States and thereupon decided to establish a mission among them. With the consent of the Prince of Chieng-mai, the Siamese government issued the necessary passports. McGilvary and his family reached Chieng-mai in the winter of 1867, and were joined the following year by the Rev. Jonathan Wilson and his family. Thus these two men became the founders of the mission to the Lao. In token of goodwill the Prince donated land for a permanent establishment. Toward the end of his life he prepared his autobiography, A Half Century among the Siamese and the L190, which was published in 1912, the year after his death. He died in Chieng-mai in his eighty-fourth year.
McGilvary was a man of clear vision, quick intuition, candor, and honor; furthermore, he had courage to the point of daring. When on the occasion of the first Christian marriage ceremony the family patriarch refused to consent to the new form unless the customary "spirit-fee" should be paid to him, McGilvary was quick to perceive that acquiescence would not only appear to condone spirit worship in the eyes of the people but would set a precedent for future demands. Accordingly, when the Prince, fearing to oppose custom, excused himself from interference on the pretext that only the King of Siam could regulate religious matters, McGilvary promptly took him at his word and made an appeal to the King for religious freedom on behalf of the native Christians.
In response, the Royal Commissioner resident at Chieng-mai received instructions from Bangkok to issue in the King's name an "edict of religious toleration" (Oct. 8, 1878). The turning of this crisis by the statesmanship of McGilvary proved to be all but the last step in the passing of the feudal power of the Prince of Chieng-mai. When the reigning prince died no successor was appointed and the Lao provinces were brought fully under the Siamese government. Undeniably McGilvary had a love of adventure. He early made several elephant tours through the provinces to learn the state of affairs.
In 1884 he gave his services as interpreter for Holt S. Hallett, who was prospecting for a British rail route from Maulmain into southwest China. Subsequently he made an annual tour through various parts of the region covered by the upper watershed of the Menam and the central watershed of the Mekong. He was among the first to investigate the several aboriginal tribes in the mountains of that region. Through these tours he came to know personally all the provincial governors and to be on friendly terms with many of the village chiefs. He was more widely acquainted with the geography, ethnography, and travel routes than any other Westerner up to his time and than most of the government officials of that day. Of his fifty-three years in Siam, McGilvary spent forty-three among the Lao, coming to be known as "the Apostle to the Lao. "
Quotes from others about the person
"He laid the foundations of the medical work, introducing quinine and vaccination among a people scourged by malaria and smallpox, a work which has now developed into five hospitals and a leper asylum. He began educational work, which is now represented by eight boarding schools and twenty-two elementary schools. He was the evangelist who won the first converts, founded the first church, and had a prominent part in founding twenty other churches. " - McGilvary's superior officer, Dr. A. J. Brown
On December 6, 1860, Daniel married Sophia Royce Bradley, eldest daughter of Rev. Dan Beach Bradley, pioneer medical missionary in Siam. To this union were born two sons and three daughters.
