Born in Albemarle County, Virginia, Rev. George O. Terrell was reportedly an Iowa resident by the early 1880s. The family was noted as living in Muchakinock in 1895, then possibly relocated to Polk County about that time. He was listed in the 1900 and 1910 censuses as a coal miner in Colfax in Jasper County. Rev. Terrell was active in the social organization The International Order of the Odd Fellows, and served as its Iowa Grand Master.

Terrell was listed as a speaker (but not designated as a minister) at the Baptist Sunday School Convention in Des Moines in 1911. An August 1917 report from Sioux City in the Iowa State Bystander referred to him as Rev. G. O. Terrell of Colfax. He moved to Des Moines by the late 1920s. His 1931 funeral services were in Des Moines, but he is buried in the Colfax Cemetery