Thomas Hubbard Vail

{{Short description|Episcopal Bishop of Kansas}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific_prefix = The Right Reverend | name = Thomas Hubbard Vail | honorific_suffix = D.D., LL.D. | title = Bishop of Kansas | image = Bishop Thomas H. Vail (ca. 1895).png | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | church = Episcopal Church | archdiocese = | province = | metropolis = | diocese = Kansas | see = | elected = September 14, 1864 | term = 1864–1889 | quashed =  | predecessor = | successor = Elisha Smith Thomas | opposed = | other_post =  | ordination = January 6, 1837 | ordained_by = Alexander Viets Griswold | consecration = December 15, 1864 | consecrated_by = Jackson Kemper | rank = | laicized =  | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1812|10|21}} | birth_place = Richmond, Virginia, United States | death_date = {{Death date and age|1889|10|06|1812|10|21}} | death_place = Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States | buried = Topeka Cemetery | resting_place_coordinates = | religion = Anglican | residence = | parents = Israel Everett Vail & Maria Rodgers | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Frances Sophia Burling|1836|1864|reason=died}} * {{marriage|Ellen Ledlie Bowman|1867}} }} | children = 9 | occupation = | profession =  | education = | alma_mater = | motto = | signature = | signature_alt = | coat_of_arms = | coat_of_arms_alt =  | module = | module2 = | other = }} '''Thomas Hubbard Vail''' (October 21, 1812 – October 6, 1889) was the first Episcopal Bishop of Kansas.

==Early life== Vail was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Israel E. Vail and Maria Rogers Vail, who had emigrated there from New England.<ref name=ts>Thompson-Stahr, 475</ref> He attended Washington College (now Trinity College), graduating in 1831.<ref name=perry>Perry, 157</ref> He next attended the General Theological Seminary, graduating in 1835.<ref name=perry/> In 1836, he married Frances Sophia Burling, with whom he had seven children.<ref name=ts/>

Vail was ordained deacon that year, and ordained priest in 1837.<ref name=perry/> After his ordination to the priesthood, he became rector of Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1837.<ref name=sketch>Batterson, 207</ref> While rector of Christ Church, Vail wrote "Hannah," a sacred drama, which he published anonymously in 1839.<ref name=perry/>

Two years later, Vail moved to Essex, Connecticut, to become rector of St. John's Church in that town.<ref name=sketch/> In 1841, he wrote "The Comprehensive Church: or, Christian Unity and Ecclesiastical Union in the Protestant Episcopal Church", which anticipated the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral. In 1844, he moved again, to Christ Church of Westerly, Rhode Island, where he remained for thirteen years.<ref name=perry/> While there, Vail received a doctorate of sacred theology from Brown University.<ref name=sketch/>

In 1857, Vail returned to Massachusetts to become rector of St. Thomas Church in Taunton.<ref name=perry/> He moved once more, in 1863, to Muscatine, Iowa, to serve as rector of Trinity Church.<ref name=perry/>

==Bishop of Kansas== At the Fifth Annual Convention held at Atchison, Kansas, on September 14, 1864, Vail was unanimously elected Bishop of Kansas. He was consecrated the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas on December 15, 1864. He was the 73rd bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States, and was consecrated at Trinity Episcopal Church, Muscatine, Iowa, by Bishops Jackson Kemper, Henry John Whitehouse, and Henry Washington Lee.<ref name=sketch/> As bishop, Vail founded the College of the Sisters of Bethany (now a part of Washburn University) and earned a doctorate of laws from the University of Kansas.<ref name=perry/> In 1867, his first wife having died, Vail married again, to Ellen Ledlie Bowman, the daughter of Bishop Samuel Bowman, with whom he had two more children.<ref name=ts/> In 1881, Vail and his wife purchased land in Topeka and donated it for the site of Christ's Hospital (now Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center) which was founded in 1884.<ref name="Duncan2005">{{cite book|author=Spencer L. Duncan|title=Historic Shawnee County: The Story of Topeka & Shawnee County|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AEP-CI71TwC&pg=PA100|date=1 January 2005|publisher=HPN Books|isbn=978-1-893619-43-2|pages=100–}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-05-07/hospital_marks_founding_with_fair|title=Hospital marks founding with fair}}</ref>

He died in 1889 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *{{cite book |title=A Sketch-book of the American Episcopate |last=Batterson |first=Hermon Griswold |year=1878 |location=Philadelphia |publisher=J. B. Lippencott & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/asketchbookamer00battgoog |access-date=2010-09-26}} *{{cite book |title=The Episcopate in America |last=Perry |first=William Stevens |author-link=William Stevens Perry |year=1895 |location=New York |publisher=The Christian Literature Company |url=https://archive.org/details/episcopateiname00perrgoog |access-date=2010-09-26}} *{{cite book |title=The Burling Books: Ancestors and Descendants of Edward and Grace Burling, Quakers (1600–2000) |last=Thompson-Stahr |first=Jane |year=2001 |volume=1 |location=Baltimore |publisher=Gateway Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_WMvEcaVBkC |access-date=2010-09-26|isbn=9780961310400 }} *''Vail v. Beach,'' 10 Kan. 214

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vail, Thomas Hubbard}} Category:1821 births Category:1889 deaths Category:Religious leaders from Richmond, Virginia Category:19th-century American Episcopalians Category:Burials at Topeka Cemetery Category:Episcopal bishops of Kansas Category:19th-century American clergy Category:19th-century Anglican theologians