Charles Gideon Hounshell, son of Peter W. Hounshell and Rhoda Tarter Hounshell, was born on the Hounshell farm near Rural Retreat Wythe County, Virginia, on January 12, 1874.
At the Rural Retreat school Mr. Hounshell began his educational career, continued through Emory and Henry College, finishing at Vanderbilt University, and takin a post graduate course at Yale University. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Emory and Henry College, Bachelor of Divinity from Vanderbilt University, and Doctor of Divinity from Emory University.
What is now known as Magnolia Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee, was Mr. Hounshell’s first appointment, he having been admitted to membership in the Holston Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at its 1899 session at Blue field, West Virginia, Bishop Wilson presiding.
Following his period of service in Knoxville, Dr. Hounshell married Miss Sara Belle Thomas, of Chattanooga, and he and his wife departed at once for Korea, where they spent seven years as missionaries under the Board of Missions of their Church. Upon returning from the Mission field, Dr. Hounshell served as Secretary of the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement, then as Educational Secretary of the Board of Missions of his Church. Following this he returned to the pastorate in Holston Conference, where he served a number of charges, his last two appointments being Presiding Elder of the Morristown District and Pastor of St. Elmo Charge at Chattanooga.
Dr. Hounshell was called to his final home on February 2, 1940. The funeral services were conducted by Bishop Paul B. Kern, assisted by William H. Harrison, James W. Henley and E.E. Wiley, Jr., in the St. Elmo Church, of which he was pastor at the time of his death; and he was interred in the Thomas plot in Chattanooga Memorial Park.
Dr. Hounshell is survived by his widow and by his father and several brothers and sisters. – W.H. Harrison
Source: Methodist Episcopal Church. Official Journal of the Holston Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. 1940.
