Billy Sunday Farm (1899-1913)

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, Iowa, but wanted to be relatively near his wife’s family (and his adopted hometown) of Chicago. In West Dundee he found a farm where he would retreat to during the summers from 1899 to 1913.

The newspaper reported him preaching in 1900 in West Dundee, “Live so that when the final summons comes you will leave something more behind you than an epitaph on a tombstone or an obituary in a newspaper.” A historical marker on IL-72 shows where his farm once was.

Evangelist William “Billy” Sunday and his wife Helen “Ma” Sunday owned this farm, 1899-1913, and spent their summers here. Ma was born on the farm. Billy was born in Ames, Iowa, in 1862. He played outfield for Chicago and other National League Baseball Clubs, 1883-1890. From 1896 until his death in 1935 he conducted religious revivals in cities and towns across the nation. His wife shared his work. In May-June 1900 Billy led a month-long revival in West Dundee Park

West Dundee Park was later Tower Park, and now Grafelman Park.