HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



153 



children: Ella, residing with her father 

 in Doylestown; and William Edgar, the 

 subject of this sketch. 



William Edgar Geil, the great traveler, 

 author and orator, was born in New 

 Britain township, Bucks county, near 

 Doylestown, October i, 1865. He ac- 

 quired his education at the public 

 schools, the Doylestown English and 

 Classical Seminary, and Lafayette Col- 

 lege, Easton, Pennsylvania, graduating 

 from the latter institution in the class 

 of 1890. At an early age he manifested a 

 d^ep interest in religious matters and 

 became an earnest and active member of 

 the church. An indefatigable student, he 

 early became thoroughly versed in the 

 Scriptures as well as in most of the im- 

 portant sacred literature, ancient and 

 modern. 



On leaving college where he was fa- 

 mous as an orator he engaged in evan- 

 gelistic work, with credentials from the 

 Doylestown church, and soon after made 

 several trips to Europe. Later he vis- 

 ited Asia, Egypt, the Holy Land, and 

 many of the ancient cities of the Mediter- 

 ranean. Returning to America he again 

 engaged in evangelistic work. He then 

 began his life work in earnest, and his 

 success was phenomenal. He held re- 

 vival meetings in various parts of New 

 Jersey, New York and New England, 

 and later made a tour of the south and 

 west, addressing meetings of thousands 

 of hearers and making thousands of con- 

 verts. The "Cincinnati Inquirer" says 

 of him: "His success has been more pro- 

 nounced than that of any evangelist since 

 Moody;" and the "Lowell (Mass.) Citi- 

 zen" says that the meetings conducted 

 by him were "the most remarkable series 

 of meetings ever held in this city." In 

 1896 he made another extended trip 

 abroad, revisiting the Holy Land and its 

 ancient environs, and many of the an- 

 cient towns of Asia Minor, and the Med- 

 iterranean. Among other points he vis- 

 ited the Isle of Patmos, and on his re- 

 turn wrote and published his book. "The 

 Isle that is called Patmos," which reach- 

 ed a sale of many thousands, and was 

 rewritten, enlarged and republished in 

 1904. after his second visit to the island, 

 in that year. The alarming illness of his 

 mother, to whose early training he says 

 he owes most of his success, called him 

 "home in the early part of 1897. and soon 

 after closing the eyes of his beloved par- 

 ' ent in her last sleep, on May 2. 1897, 

 be returned to Europe for a brief sojourn 

 and then again took up his work in his 

 native country with increased success. 



The crowning feat, however, of his 

 younger days, was his remarkable trip 

 around the world, visiting missions in 

 -obscure and distant parts of heathendom, 

 and occupying a period of nearly four 

 years. The purposes of this trip are best 

 described by his Doylestown pastor, who 

 says: "The purpose of the tour is that of 



independent observation of the whole 

 missionary field, in its actual condition, 

 operations, modes of organization, in- 

 struction and efforts, its different pecu- 

 liarities, its needs, its difficulties, its rela- 

 tions to existing heathen religion, to in- 

 ternational and denominational policies of 

 political events ; and what encouragement or 

 discouragement may exist in the great work 

 of extending the gospel to the world, 

 and especially to the neglected parts of 

 heathendom. A special object is to visit 

 schools, colleges and institutions of sa- 

 cred learning in connection with mis- 

 sionary operations and report the results 

 to the whole Christian church." This 

 purpose Mr. Geil fulfilled to the letter. 

 Leaving Philadelphia on April 29, 1901, 

 he crossed the continent to California, 

 and. sailing from the Golden Gate for the 

 Sandwich anjj South Sea Islands, visiting 

 the Hawaiian, Samoan, Fiji, and many 

 other archipelagoes, inspecting the mis- 

 sions, and intelligently noting their con- 

 dition and work, as well as the condition 

 and characteristics of the inhabitants, 

 and the relation of governmental and 

 commercial matters to the propagation 

 of the Gospel of Christ. He proceeded 

 thence to New Zealand, and Australia, 

 reaching Sydney in November. 1901, 

 where, and in Melbourne the following 

 April and May, he organized and partici- 

 pated in the greatest religious revivals 

 the continent has evein known, speaking 

 daily to audience*s of 3-000 at noon and 

 10,000 at night. From Australia he pro- 

 ceeded to New Guinea, the Philippines 

 and Japan. The results of this part of 

 the trip are beautifully told in his book, 

 "Ocean and Isle," published in 1904. He 

 also made an extensive trip through 

 China, going up the Yangtse river in a 

 native gunboat, and was carried over the 

 mountains of western China in a bamboo 

 mountain chair. His popular work, "A 

 Yankee on the Yangtse" tells the story 

 in brilliant language. He visited Man- 

 churia. Korea and Siberia, and later 

 traveled extensively in Burmah and jour- 

 neyed across Africa from Mombassa on 

 the eastern coast to the Pigmy Forest, 

 and thence down the Congo to the west- 

 ern coast. William Edgar Geil is the 

 greatest living traveler. He is the only 

 living white man who has crossed both 

 China and tropical Africa. His great book 

 "A Yankee in Pigmy Land," is just 

 published. After spending sometime 

 lecturing to vast audiences in England 

 and Scotland, where he was welcomed by 

 immense crowds, he returned to Bucks 

 county and in June, I90S,_ delivered an 

 address before the alumni of his alma 

 mater. Lafayette College, and received 

 from that institution the degree of A. _M. 

 One feature of his return to his native 

 town was the large and enthusiastic re- 

 ception tendered him by his fellow 

 townsmen in the courthouse at Doyles- 

 town, when addresses were delivered by 



