Billy Sunday is widely remembered for his energetic preaching and national influence, but the roots of his character were formed in far humbler surroundings. One of the most significant of these was the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, located in Davenport. It was here, during his boyhood, that Sunday developed the discipline, resilience, and moral grounding that would later define his Read more...
The Billy Sunday Tabernacle in Manhattan was a massive temporary wooden structure built for a 10-week revival in 1917, located at 168th Street and Broadway on the former site of Hilltop Park. It seated 16,000–20,000 people, featured sawdust-covered floors, and hosted over a million attendees, marking a high point in Sunday’s evangelical career. _____ Image Source/Credit: • The Voice in the Read more...
The Homer Rodeheaver–Starr-Gennett Walk of Fame honors some of the most influential figures in early American recorded music and gospel hymnody. Located in Richmond, the walk of fame celebrates the historic legacy of the Starr Piano Company and its recording division, the Gennett Records, which played a major role in the development of the recording industry during the early twentieth Read more...
The Hot Springs Baseball Grounds played a significant role in the early development of professional baseball in the United States. Located in Hot Springs, the grounds were among the earliest sites used for organized spring training and became an important gathering place for players and fans during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the 1880s, Hot Springs began Read more...
February 17, 1889, Billy Sunday preached his first message at Farwell Hall. Chicago Tribune featured it on the front page: Image Credit: Feb 18, 1889, Page 1 – Chicago Tribune at Newspapers.com. www.newspapers.com/image/349864826/?match=1. “STRIKING OUT” SATAN. BILLY SUNDAY, THE NOTED BALL TOSSER, TURNS EVANGELIST. The Famous Centre-Fielder Addresses a Large Crowd at Farwell Hall — He Didn’t Even Allow the Read more...
The place of death of Billy Sunday, located in Winona Lake, serves as a quiet yet meaningful site connected to one of the most dynamic figures in American religious history. Known for his energetic preaching style and his wide-reaching revival campaigns, Billy Sunday left a lasting impression on early 20th-century evangelical Christianity. The home where he spent his final days Read more...
The Winona History Center serves as a vital guardian of the rich cultural and religious heritage of Winona Lake. Situated in a town once known as a major hub for Bible conferences and Christian gatherings, the center preserves the stories, artifacts, and legacy of a community that played a significant role in shaping American evangelical life in the late 19th Read more...
Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church. Jefferson Park is now Skinner Park. Northeast corner of Adams & Throop St. Billy Sunday started attending in 1886, became an elder, and was ordained there in 1905. Real Billy Sunday: IN 1905 Mr. Sunday was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church, by the Chicago Presbytery, the ordination taking place at the Jefferson Park Presbyterian Read more...
Billy Sunday remains one of the most colorful and influential figures in early twentieth-century American religious life, and his formative years at Northwestern Academy—often referred to historically as Evanston Academy—played a meaningful role in shaping the man he would become. Born in 1862 in rural Iowa, Billy Sunday’s early life was marked by hardship. His father, a Union soldier, died Read more...
Billy Sunday is remembered today as one of the most dynamic revivalists in American history, a man whose fiery sermons and dramatic style captivated audiences across the nation in the early twentieth century. While his fame eventually spread far and wide, one of the most important turning points in his life occurred in Chicago, where his association with the Pacific Read more...
Billy Sunday, one of the most vibrant figures in early twentieth-century American religious life, is often remembered for his electrifying revival meetings and dramatic preaching style. However, his rise to prominence was shaped not only by his athletic and spiritual gifts but also by experiences rooted in small-town America. One such formative connection was with the Tremont Inn, a gathering Read more...
Wikipedia: By fourteen, Sunday was shifting for himself. In Nevada, Iowa, he worked for Colonel John Scott, a former lieutenant governor, tending Shetland ponies and doing other farm chores. The Scotts provided Sunday a good home and the opportunity to attend Nevada High School.[5] Although Sunday never received a high school diploma, by 1880 he was better educated than many Read more...
Tabernacles & Sawdust Trails: “At Ames, Iowa,” he says, “we had to wait for the train and we went to a little hotel and they came about one o’clock and said : ‘Get ready for the train.’ I looked into mother’s face, and her eyes were red, her hair was disheveled. I said: ‘What’s the matter mother?’ All the time Read more...
William Ashley Sunday is buried in the same cemetery as Paul Harvey (other side of the Des Plaines River). Enter the cemetery near the bus stop, take the second left and proceed to the Haymarket Martyr’s Monument. Following trial, four anarchists were executed by hanging in 1887. Because German Waldheim was not a religious cemetery, it was chosen for the Read more...
Billy Sunday (1862-1935) is regarded as the most prominent — and influential — evangelist of the early part of the 20th century. Born near Ames, he spent part of his youth in Marshalltown, then returned here in 1909, where he spoke to a packed tabernacle of his followers. The tabernacle in Marshalltown in which Sunday did his preaching was located Read more...
Billy Sunday’s first professional baseball game was played May 22, 1883, in Chicago at now-Millennium Park. Ten years later, on June 11, 1893, D.L. Moody would preach in a circus tent to his largest audience at the same spot! The 1890s were the peak of the Gilded Age. Industrialization, wage growth, railroads, factories, mines, immigration, formed the boom times that were Read more...
The Billy Sunday Baseball Field was constructed in the 1930s to serve as a consistent playing location for Nevada’s semi-pro baseball team. The field was originally located on the west side of S14, but was soon relocated to its current location, just east of S14. The Nevada High School baseball team began playing at the field around 1934, which prompted Read more...
Clearview School in Iowa represents a small but meaningful piece of the early life and environment that helped shape one of America’s most famous evangelists, Billy Sunday. Though the school itself was a typical rural one-room schoolhouse, its connection to Sunday reflects the broader story of how modest beginnings and local institutions contributed to the development of influential figures in Read more...
Hymn History: He Lives Author: Alfred Henry Ackley “He once said, ‘The thought of His ever-living presence brought the music promptly and easily.’” (Bruce Creswell) The Origin of the Hymn “He Lives” (I Serve a Risen Savior) Few gospel hymns capture the joy and assurance of the resurrection as powerfully as “He Lives”, also known by its opening Read more...
From FairfieldCulturalDistrict: In 1907 Billy Sunday held revival services in a 3000-seat tabernacle at this address, which was later dismantled and reconstructed at Chautauqua Park, and then used until 1931. Billy Sunday, born in Ames, Iowa, after 8 years as a professional baseball player, became an evangelist in 1896. Very popular until his death in 1935, he is said to Read more...
