"Rev. John B. Hail Dies At His Home in Japan

Aged Missionary Was a Graduate of Waynesburg College. Had Translated Many Books into Japanese Language.

A cablegram received by the board of foreign missions at the Presbyterian church in New York on Thursday, announced the death of the Rev. John Baxter Hail, D. D., at his home in Wakayama, Japan. He was aged 82 years and his death was due to an attack of pneumonia.

Dr. Hail was born October 1, 1846 at Macomb, Ill. When a young man he came to Waynesburg college, and was graduated in 1870. After completing _________ at the Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, he became pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church at Rock Lick W. Va.  Later he went to Japan under the Cumberland Presbyterian Board of Missions, arriving there in January 1877, when the mission field there was in its earliest infancy. He was stations in Osaka until 1891 when he removed to Wakayama, about forty miles south of Osaka. His missionary activity was almost wholly evangelistic work, going from house to house, and also preaching in the villages in the interior. He had translated many religious books into the Japanese language and was also the author of a number of books. Waynesburg college conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1895. The same year while he was home on a brief furlough Dr. Hail was elected moderator of the Cumberland Presbyterian church of the United States. 

On April 28, 1875 Rev. Hail was united in marriage with Miss Mary Elizabeth Rohrer of Fayette county, who was a member of his class in Waynesburg college. Her death occurred last year. Both Dr. and Mrs. Hail had given almost their entire life to the missionary cause. Two sons survive, Dr. William J. Hail a graduate of Yale university and a teacher for several years in the Yale-in-China school for boys in Changsha, China. He is now teaching in Wooster college, Wooster, Ohio. Rev. Arthur L. Hail, a graduate of Waynesburg college, who is pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Donora, Pa. There are eight grandchildren."