Thomas Hubbard Vail (1812-1889) was born in Virginia and educated at Washington College, General Theological Seminary and Brown University. He served the Episcopal Church as a rector in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Iowa before becoming the first Episcopal bishop of Kansas. He founded the Episcopal Seminary in Topeka in 1865, an institution of higher education for women that was renamed the College of the Sisters of Bethany and was absorbed into Washburn College in the 1930s. Bishop Vail's wife, Ellen Ledlie Bowman Vail (1828-1894), served as Matron of the college. The Vails donated land and founded Topeka’s first hospital, Christ’s Hospital (1884), now Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center. Bishop Vail earned a Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Kansas in 1875. He traveled extensively, fundraising for his medical and educational institutions, and died of lung inflammation and malaria in Pennsylvania. He is buried in Topeka, Kansas.

[Information retrieved from findagrave.com and the Episcopal Church Dictionary of the Church, available on episcopalchurch.org.]

Elisha Smith Thomas (1834-1895) was born in Rhode Island and educated at Yale University and Berkeley Divinity School. He served the Episcopal Church as a rector in Connecticut and Minnesota before becoming Assistant Bishop of Kansas in 1887. He succeeded Thomas Hubbard Vail in 1889, becoming the second Bishop of the Diocese of Kansas, founding the Saint John’s Military School in Salina, Kansas.

Thomas fell ill while preaching in Ellsworth, Kansas and was taken back to Saint John’s School, where he died. He is buried in Rhode Island.

[Information retrieved from findagrave.com and the Episcopal Church Dictionary of the Church, available on episcopalchurch.org.]