Jules Louis Prevost

Who was Jules Louis Prevost?

Jules Louis Prevost was an American Episcopal missionary to Alaska, a linguist and translator, and a professor of the history of medicine at the Temple University School of Medicine.

Prevost studied at the Philadelphia Divinity School, receiving his B.D. degree in 1890. He was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Ozi W. Whitaker. After ordination to the priesthood in 1891, he traveled to Fort Adams on the Yukon River in Alaska, arriving in August 1891.

He published the first newspaper in the Interior of Alaska, the Yukon Press, beginning on January 1, 1893. On furlough to the United States in 1894, he married Anna Louise Demonet and studied at the New York School of Pharmacy. They returned to Tanana. He translated portions of the Book of Common Prayer into the Upper Koyukon language, along with hymns and other texts.

Prevost served as US postmaster at Tanana. In 1906 he left Alaska permanently, returning with his family to Philadelphia. He served as rector of St. Ambrose's Church. He also earned a degree in medicine from Temple University School of Medicine, graduating in 1909.

He continued as a lecturer in medical history at Temple University until 1929. That year he accepted a call to St. Andrew's Church, Panama City, Florida. He died in Pughtown, Pennsylvania.