February 17, 1889, Billy Sunday preached his first message at Farwell Hall. Chicago Tribune featured it on the front page: “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 “Father of Sin” to Reach First Base—Advising His Hearers to Watch Their “Error Read more...
From the Center: The Winona History Center is located in the original Westminster Hotel, one of several hotels built to lodge the many guests that flocked to Winona Lake through the years. The west wing of the first floor, which houses the museum, was the location of the offices of gospel music pioneer Homer Rodeheaver. In addition to highlighting Rodeheaver’s 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...
Wendy Knickerbocker, Society of American Baseball Research During the winter of 1887-88, Sunday made arrangements to take courses in elocution and rhetoric at Evanston Academy, part of Northwestern University. In exchange for the courses, he agreed to coach the university’s baseball team during their winter practice sessions. On the night of January 1, 1888, Sunday proposed to Nell Thompson. Evanston Read more...
Site of Pacific Garden Mission from 1880-1923, location of Billy Sunday conversion. Wikipedia: In 1880, the mission moved to 67 E. Van Buren Street, in a location which was formerly known as the Pacific Beer Garden. At that time, the current name of the mission, Pacific Garden Mission, was adopted; However, evangelist D.L. Moody suggested that the name of the former occupant should Read more...
Wikipedia: In 1880, Sunday relocated to Marshalltown, Iowa, where, because of his athleticism, he had been recruited for a fire brigade team. In Marshalltown, Sunday worked at odd jobs, competed in fire brigade tournaments, and played for the town baseball team.[7] In 1882, with Sunday in left field, the Marshalltown team defeated the state champion Des Moines team 13–4.[8] Sunday’s 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...
Tabernacles & Sawdust Trails: F. J. Sessions, Superintendent of the Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, at Davenport, says: “Howard E. and William A. Sunday were admitted to this institution by transfer from the Glenwood, Iowa, Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home when the latter was closed January 29, 1875. They were admitted to the Glenwood institution September 25, 1874. Dismissed from this institution June 10, 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. “He came to Marshalltown for six weeks in 1909, and spoke twice Read more...
TL, DR: 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 to his largest audience at the same spot, in a circus tent! The 1890s were the peak of the Gilded Age. Industrialization, wage growth, railroads, factories, mines, immigration, formed the boom 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...
According to the Ames Historical Museum, Billy Sunday attended Clearview School, a one-room schoolhouse on the northwest corner of South Duff & Airport Road in Washington Township. At the time, Sunday was living with his maternal grandparents, the Cory’s. 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 Read more...
Billy Sunday (1862-1935) was born north of Des Moines, Iowa. His father died just five weeks after he was born, in the Union Army during the Civil War. Sent to the Iowa Soldiers’ Orphans’ Home, he discovered his athletic abilities. Upsetting the state champion, Sunday went from the Marshalltown fire brigade ball team, to the professional leagues with the Chicago Read more...
This stop isn’t exactly a Christian historic site, but an interesting look at history from the Christian era. George Herman “Babe” Ruth (1895-1948) was called the “Sultan of Swat” An inaugural member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and holder of records that still stand today, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Donald Trump. In Read more...
Halfway between O’Hare Airport and Rockford Illinois is a historical marker about a famous evangelist. Billy Sunday had given up professional baseball for the Chicago White Stockings in 1890 and began holding evangelistic meetings across the nation. During the summers he would take a break from the road – he wanted a place that felt like his hometown of Ames, Read more...
Billy Sunday home from 1862-1872. Road renamed Billy Sunday Lane Burial of Albert Sunday, older brother of Billy, and Mary Jane Corey, Billy’s mother 1851 – Squire Martin Cory (maternal grandfather of Billy Sunday) settlement started with a Land Patent on 160 acres 1862 – Nov. 19 – Billy Sunday Born 1862 – Dec. – William Sunday Sr. 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...
