Reverand Eugene Bell, whose Korean name was Bae Yuji, is known as one of the fathers of Southern Presbyterian mission work in the South Joella region.

He and his wife, Lottie Witherspoon Bell, arrived in Korea in 1895.

After two years of language study in Seoul, Reverend Bell was asked to open a Southern Presbyterian mission station in Mokpo. Later he helped establish another mission station in Gwangju. He also established numerous churches in the South Jeolla area.

Reverend Bell also helped found various mission institutions; including Jeongmyung School and Yeongheung School in Mokpo, Sungil School and Supia Girls' School in Gwangju, and Jejung Hospital (now Gwangju Christian Hospital), the first western hospital in Gwangju.
Lottie Witherspoon Bell died in Korea at the age of 33 and is buried at the Yanghwajin Missionary Cemetery in Seoul. Reverand Eugene Bell died in 1925 and is buried in the missionary cemetery in Gwangju.

Reverend William A. Linton began his career as a Southern Presbyterian missionary in 1912. For the next four decades, he devoted himself to educational work, serving as a teacher and administrator. Later he received his doctorate and helped found Daejeon University, the predecessor of Hannam University. Reverend Linton was also engaged in evangelistic work, preaching in rural churches on weekends when schools were not in session.

Reverend William Linton married Charlotte Bell, the daughter of Reverend Eugene Bell. She worked as a teacher and administrator in schools established by the Southern Presbyterian Mission, including, Jeonju Gijeon Girls' High School and Jeonju Sinheung High School. She continued to serve as a missionary to Korea after her husband’s death until poor health forced her to retire.

Hugh M. Linton, the third son of Reverend William A. Linton, was born in Gunsan and grew up in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. After completing his education, he returned to Korea in 1953, He and his wife, Lois Flowers Linton, were assigned to Suncheon City, South Jeolla Province where he concentrated on church-planting. By the time of his death in 1984, he had assisted in establishing more than 200 churches in South Jeolla Province, including remote islands.

In the 1960s, after the Suncheon area was hit by a major flood, he and his wife, Lois, founded a tuberculosis clinic and inpatient treatment centers. After his death, she remained in Suncheon until she retired in 1994.