Paull, George

Paull, George a missionary of the Presbyterian Church, was born near Connellsville, Fayette Co., Pa., Feb. 3, 1837. He pursued his preparatory studies first under Rev. Ross Stevenson, of Ligonier, Pa., then in the Dunlap Creek Presbyterian Academy, and afterwards under Prof. John Frazer; graduated at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pa., in 1858, in the spring of which year he made a profession of religion, and united with the Church at Connellsville; after leaving college he went South, and engaged in teaching for a time in Mississippi; but, feeling called to preach the Gospel, he returned, and entered the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny City, Pa.; was licensed by Redstone Presbytery in April, 1861, and graduated at the seminary in 1862. He gave his name to the General Assembly's Board of Foreign Missions as a candidate for missionary work, but owing to the embarrassed state of the board, arising from the civil war. he could not be sent on his mission immediately. For a time, therefore, he supplied the vacant churches of Tyrone and Sewickley, in his own presbytery; then ministered to a weak Church in Morrison, Whiteside Co., Ill., in Rock River Presbytery; but in 1863 he entered on his own chosen work, being ordained as missionary to Africa, by Redstone Presbytery, at Connellsville. He was appointed to take charge of the mission at Evangasimba, where he labored till, in 1865, at his urgent request, he received an appointment to Bonita, a point on the continent where he hoped to build up a new station. His labors of preaching and teaching, together with the superintendence of building, proved too great even for his strong physical powers, and he died May 14, 1865. Mr. Paull was a man who sought to consecrate all his powers to the service of his Divine Master. He was endowed with a comprehensive understanding, sound judgment, and refined tastes. As a preacher, he was eminently popular-his thought always being pungent, tender, earnest, and practical. See Wilson, Presbyterian Historical Almanac, 1866, p. 141. (. L. S.)