[3] While rector of Christ Church, Vail wrote "Hannah," a sacred drama, which he published anonymously in 1839.

[2] Two years later, Vail moved to Essex, Connecticut, to become rector of St. John's Church in that town.

In 1844, he moved again, to Christ Church of Westerly, Rhode Island, where he remained for thirteen years.

He was the 73rd bishop in the Episcopal Church in the United States, and was consecrated at Trinity Episcopal Church, Muscatine, Iowa, by Bishops Jackson Kemper, Henry John Whitehouse, and Henry Washington Lee.

[1] In 1881, Vail and his wife purchased land in Topeka and donated it for the site of Christ's Hospital (now Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center) which was founded in 1884.