The Rev. George Marshall
The Third Pastorate 1833 - 1872
The Rev. George Marshall, a licentiate of Washington Presbytery, preached first on July 11, 1832. One of his listeners said,
AHe stood pale and thin like a ghost but his voice and gestures were powerful. His prayers were better than preaching. He was young but spoke with authority; we were taken by storm; we determined to have him.@For a time he acted as stated supply and preached so acceptably that he received an unanimous call. On June 26, 1833, Mr. Marshall was ordained and installed as pastor. He was twenty-six years of age.
Mr. Marshall took an active interest in foreign and domestic missions. It was his custom during his pastorate to have a AMissionary Concert@ for an hour the first Sabbath of each month. He was elected a director of Western Foreign Missionary Society in October, 1835 and served as recording secretary in 1836. He was chosen Moderator of the Presbytery of Ohio April 18, 1837. He served as a director of the Western Theological Seminary from 1835 to 1870 and as a trustee from 1845 to 1870. He was twice appointed a commissioner to the General Assembly at Philadelphia. Over the years, he was called upon to serve the church at large.
Soon after Mr. Marshall became pastor of Bethel Presbyterian Church, through his efforts, Bethel Academy was instituted in 1835. The first building was a one-story brick structure placed near the church. Mr. Marshall at once began the education of youth particularly to prepare them for entrance into Jefferson College, of which he was trustee. While developing to the fullest extent their intellectual faculties, he did not neglect their moral and religious training. His reputation as a successful teacher and trainer of youth induced many parents and guardians to place their children and wards under his care.
The second Academy building was a two-story brick building erected on the south-east corner of the cemetery plot in 1856 with a class room on the second floor and assembly room on the first floor. There was a small library room to the left of the entrance and a stairway to the right. This building was used for a school until 1880. It was demolished in 1897.
The Rev. George Marshall received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Jefferson College in 1854.
In a sermon on the occasion of his seventeenth anniversary as pastor of Bethel Church, Dr. Marshall referred to the conditions he found at the beginning of his ministry as "dark and discouraging." He said, "the number of church members was 130, prayer meetings were sadly neglected, with no Sabbath school in the church, no temperance association in existence and little manifestation of the spirit of benevolence for the spread of the Gospel among the perishing nations of the earth." Dr. Marshall's preaching awakened the slumbering church and brought its people back to the service of the Lord.