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.
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 Church, in which he had for several years been an elder. His old friend and associate in evangelistic work. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, preached the sermon, and Dr. Alexander Patterson gave the charge.
Image Credit: “Image 16 of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map From Chicago, Cook County, Illinois.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/resource/g4104cm.g01790191707/?sp=16&st=image&r=0.104,0.968,0.318,0.149,0.
Jefferson Park had as pastor Frank Talmadge, son of T. DeWitt Talmadge
Image Credit: Oct 28, 1897, Page 3 – The Chicago Chronicle at Newspapers.com. www.newspapers.com/image/668132028/?
Thompson Home: 62 Throop St
- (Nell’s Dad) William Thompson Grave (same cemetery as Billy Sunday)
Sunday was twenty-four years old when he met his future wife. He had been playing with the Chicago White Stockings since 1883. Her home was at the corner of Throop and Adams streets. The West Side Ball Grounds were between Harrison and Congress streets, and Billy managed to pass the Thompson home four times a day while the team was playing on the home grounds. Mrs. Sunday says the front steps seemed to need sweeping many times a day when the team was on the local schedule….
The Sundays first began housekeeping in Chicago at 700 Monroe street, in a four-room flat. Here they lived two years, and until after Helen was born. They then removed to a larger flat, at 64 Throop street, and here their other three children were born. This continued to be their home until 1910, when they built their present home at Winona Lake, Ind. They had, however, had a summer cottage there for something like ten years before this.
West Side Ball Grounds: Wikipedia
At this time Billy Sunday’s Chicago White Stockings (no relation to the White Sox) played at the West Side Ball Grounds – surrounded by Congress, Loomis, Harrison, and Throop St. As mentioned earlier, Sunday’s future in-laws lived just 3 blocks away.
Image Credit: Wikipedia contributors. “West Side Park.” Wikipedia, 20 Feb. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Park.
