The Chautauqua Institution in Western New York hosts over 100,000 people per year in ecumenical pursuit of learning and the arts. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Chautauqua Circuit took famous lecturers beyond New York throughout North America. But Chautauqua was founded in 1874 as the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, a Protestant training camp for Sunday School Read more...
Watch a short video about Phillip Bliss filmed on location From the Marker: “Near this site, an iron truss bridge collapsed into the Ashtabula River during a blizzard, plunging a passenger train with 160 on board into the gulf below. Nearly 100 people were killed in this, one of the worst train disasters in American history. The most well known Read more...
On our road trip filming the first season of Our Christian Heritage TV, we had just interviewed a Philip Bliss impersonator, who shared the life and songs of the second most famous Christian hymnwriter. Philip Bliss (1838-1876), wrote many songs in our hymnals, including “Almost Persuaded,” “Wonderful Words of Life,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” “I am so glad Read more...
Milton Stewart (1838-1923) was described in the 1924 American Biography as: A Christian layman who gave the greater part of a vast fortune and the best thought of a keen and prescient mind to the advancement of the Kingdom to which he yielded devoted allegiance. Milton Stewart furthered great practical and religious projects in a manner distinctively his own, frequently Read more...
Image Credit: Photo: Philip P. Bliss Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=155306. The marker reads: The great singing evangelist and gospel song writer was born July 9, 1838, in a log house which stood a little distance from here. He lived and worked on the farm and in nearby lumber camps until the age of 16. Phillip Bliss was the author and composer of Read more...
Although it is in a cemetery, this is not the grave of Phillip P. Bliss, rather his earthly remains are in the mass grave in Ashtabula, OH. However, because his home was in Rome, Pennsylvania, the cemetery features a cenotaph (a monument built to honor someone whose remains are elsewhere) to P. P. Bliss. Featured Image Credit: A. Burt Read more...
Reuben Archer Torrey, also known as R.A. Torrey, worked with Dwight L. Moody in Chicago, and became superintendent of what is now Moody Bible Institute, then-Chicago Evangelization Society. In 1894 he was pastor of Chicago Avenue (now Moody) Church. Heading to the West Coast, Torrey was dean of the Bible Institute Of Los Angeles (BIOLA), and in 1915 he was Read more...
James Milton Black (1856-1938) is widely known as the author of the words and music to the popular gospel song When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. He was, however, a very private person whose failure to leave much documentation about his work has frustrated musicologists for decades. No photograph of him suitable for large-size reproduction in gospel song histories, Read more...
Section S, Division 1, Lot 54 – 7 1/2 N 4 1/2 W From FindaGrave: Hymn Composer. The author of over 2,000 hymns which are still available in print, he is remembered his widely popular songs “What a Wonderful Savior!,” “Enough for Me,” “Is Thy Heart Right With God?,” “Are You Washed in the Blood?,” “No Other Friend Like Jesus,” Read more...
Reporter, Lawyer, and Pastor: The Author of “We Three Kings of Orient Are” Our journey fittingly begins considering the birth of Jesus. The words and music to this popular Christmas carol were composed by John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857, and they have been included in Methodist hymnals since 1935. Geographically, we begin at Christ Episcopal Church at Fourth Read more...
Rev. Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 12, 1826 and at age 22 entered the University of Lewisburg (now Bucknell University). After graduating at age 28 he served as pastor in West Chester, PA; New York City; Brooklyn; and then returned to Lewisburg, where he was a professor and received an honorary doctorate. Monument Text: The Read more...
It was a five mile walk along the CB&Q railroad track, but the teenager, who also worked long hours at a coal mine, had heard about the Salvation Army meetings in Canton and decided he wanted to see what it was all about. Meetings at that time often lasted until 11 p.m., but after walking the five miles home after Read more...
I left Wisconsin for a visit to Myanmar (ancient Burma), where throughout the entire country the legacy of Adoniram Judson (see Plymouth, MA) is visible. During my trip, I read the biography of Judson, To The Golden Shore. When it mentioned an individual with ties to Wisconsin, I had to learn more, and started digging thru the archives. Over a Read more...
Wikipedia Crosby and Rider moved to 226 Wells Street, Bridgeport, Connecticut in summer 1906 because of Rider’s cancer.[297] Carrie died of intestinal cancer in July 1907, and Phoebe Knapp died on July 10, 1908.[91] Weeks later, Ira Sankey died having just sung “Saved by Grace”, one of Crosby’s most popular compositions.[298] On May 2, 1911, Crosby spoke to 5,000 people at the opening meeting of the Read more...
David Brainerd (1718-1747) died at age 29, but inspired missionaries such as William Carey and Jim Eliot. He was a struggling farmer but during the Great Awakening on July 12, 1739, “the Lord… brought me to a hearty desire to exalt him, to set him on the throne, and to ‘seek first his Kingdom,’ i.e., principally and ultimately to aim Read more...
The log house occupied by the Presbyterian missionary to the Indians in 1744 was a short distance away on the side road. It was here the youthful zealot wrote part of his famed journal. Featured zImage Credit: Photo: David Brainerd Marker. www.hmdb.org/PhotoFullSize.asp?PhotoID=104167. Read more...
From Banner of Truth: This was certainly true at Hampden-Sydney and the President, John Blair Smith, also a Presbyterian pastor of two nearby, small congregations, Briery and Cub Creek, was deeply grieved. He and the members of his churches began to pray for revival in their communities and at the college. In 1788 eighty young men were at the college and Read more...
John Blair Smith was the second president of Hampden-Sydney College, founded by his older brother. From Banner of Truth: This was certainly true at Hampden-Sydney and the President, John Blair Smith, also a Presbyterian pastor of two nearby, small congregations, Briery and Cub Creek, was deeply grieved. He and the members of his churches began to pray for revival Read more...
From the website: The Old Rugged Cross Historical Museum is an outgrowth of a memorial cross erected and dedicated on September 14, 1954, north of Reed City, Michigan, near the home of Reverend and Mrs. George Bennard. Reverend Bennard was the author of well-loved hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” written in 1913. The museum presently contains mementos and relics not only Read more...
George Bennard was born in Youngstown, Ohio, but his parents would move to Iowa. When he was a teenager, he was invited to a Salvation Army meeting at 176 South 1st Avenue, Canton, Illinois, where he knelt at the “mourner’s bench” and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. The Canton Salvation Army still has that mourner’s bench on display. After Read more...
