John S. Norvell (1856-1940) was born in Glenwood, Iowa, and died in Alhambra, California. When he first wrote to Mary Baker Eddy in 1886, he was a member and pastor at First Baptist Church Emerson in Emerson, Iowa. He was a student of Eddy's, completing the Primary class in 1886. He preached and taught classes all around Iowa and Nebraska and was listed as a member of the Christian Scientist Association. Norvell was registered to take Eddy's Normal class in 1887, but he never did. He continued to teach in the west when he had not completed the necessary classes to do so, which caused him to fall out of favor with Eddy. In 1896 he led the opening service at the annual State Convention of the Baptist Churches of Northern and Central California, and during the last twenty years of his life, he was a pastor at Grace Church in Alhambra, California.

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