On September 14, 1898, John Nicholson, a travelling salesman (think of the Music Man era) from Janesville, checked into the Boscobel Central House Hotel. Back in the day, not all hotel rooms were private – in fact often you may not have a bed to yourself. In 1776, John Adams wrote of having to share a bed with Benjamin Read more...
One night in September 1898 two salesmen, John H. Nicholson and Samuel E. Hill, shared room 19 in the Central Hotel, Boscobel. They wondered if some organization could not be started for the mutual help and recognition of Christian travelers. A chance meeting of the two on May 31, 1899 in Beaver Dam led to plans for an organizational meeting Read more...
Home of the composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the music for the song “In the Sweet By and By” There’s a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar; For the Father waits over the way To prepare us a dwelling place there. Refrain: In the sweet by and by, We shall Read more...
From Kids4Truth: “God always blesses obedience.” Blaine Myron Cedarholm was born on June 20, 1915. Myron Cedarholm, as he was called, was saved at the age of five. He was baptized at age ten by his father, who was also his pastor. By the end of his life, Cedarholm had come to be known as “the man with the Read more...
Governor Alexander Randall was afraid Abraham Lincoln might lose the 1860 presidential election. In that case, Wisconsin would secede from the Union to protest the pro-slavery administration. The Irish Union Guard opposed secession, and as a result the governor confiscated their weapons. To raise money for new weapons, they chartered the PS Lady Elgin on September 6, 1860, for a Read more...
Learn from Tim Schmig about the multiple references to God in the Jefferson Memorial: Below the frieze on the dome I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man The Declaration of Independence We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they Read more...
Site of one of the most famous trials in the 20th Century, featuring Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan. My first visit to the Scopes Trial Museum proved unsuccessful. It was the Christmas season and the County Executive ordered the building closed early for the day. So I took some pictures outside – the statues of William Jennings Bryan and Read more...
This hymn is a uniquely Wisconsin hymn. The words were written by a pastor buried in Wisconsin, and set to music by a pastor born in Wisconsin. Rev. Warren D. Cornell was born in Michigan but left at 19 to teach and preach in Texas. At 23 he came to Wisconsin, where he’d spend the next 40 years of his Read more...
Sept 30th, 10:30 AM – Historic Reenactment Service The congregation began meeting in the 1750s, following the ministry of the Methodist evangelist and preacher George Whitefield in the region. He died in Newburyport in 1770 and his remains were buried under the pulpit of the meeting house at his request. The bell in the clock tower was cast by Paul Read more...
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was the son and grandson of colonial ministers. He started at Yale when he was 12, and at 19 was an interim pastor in New York. At 23 he joined his grandfather Solomon Stoddard at the Northampton church and married Sarah Pierpont. At 25 his grandfather died, leaving him as senior pastor. At age 30 a revival Read more...
From Wholesome Words: Her funeral filled the church with friends. The choir sang her favorite song …”Faith of Our Fathers”…then, her own…”Safe in the Arms of Jesus”…and, “Saved By Grace.” Her minister, George M. Brown, of the Methodist church said it well: There must have been a royal welcome when this queen of sacred song burst the bonds of death Read more...
Her funeral was held at her church, now Golden Hill Methodist, close to downtown Bridgeport. She is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, built by her friend P.T. Barnum. Just down from Fanny’s grave you’ll see the statue of General Tom Thumb, and Barnum’s own grave. Fanny requested a simple grave, but forty years after her death, the townsfolk built Read more...
In 1857, the California gold rush was in decline. The railroad bubble peaked in July. Business failures began in August. The fashionable churches were moving north, but Jeremiah Lanphier lived in the nonreligious lower part of the city. Lanphier never married, and had no formal schooling to prepare him for ministry, but he was commissioned as a lay missionary of Read more...
Philip Bliss (1838-1876) is reported to be the second most famous hymnwriter in American history after Fanny Crosby, and if he would have lived as long as her, he may be even more famous. In Chautauqua, New York, he and his wife visited the Palestine Park. In 1863-64 he built his home in Rome, Pennsylvania. In 1965, it became the Read more...
The University of Chicago was founded (and funded) by John D. Rockefeller, the oil baron. He spent millions digging up artifacts all over the Middle East, and floated much of it back to Chicago. The Oriental Institute collection contains over 300,000 items. In the first sections, look for artifacts from Ur – Abraham lived in Ur from 2166 BC to Read more...
Ida Lilliard Reed (November 30, 1865 – July 8, 1951) was an American religious writer and music composer from West Virginia. Composer and author Ida L. Reed was born on a hilltop farm near Philippi on November 30, 1865. In the face of illnesses, family deaths, and constant poverty, she was a devout Methodist all her life. She wrote some Read more...
According to the organization, “In the early 1970’s while Pastor Richard Diamond and his wife, Alwilda, attended a crusade in Atlanta, Georgia, they toured a historical wax museum. After viewing scenes of past presidents, generals, and war heroes to their surprise the last scene was the Ascension of Jesus Christ.“ Ten years later Pastor Diamond started a Biblical wax museum, Read more...
Watch Our Christian Heritage at the Christian Hall of Fame Canton, Ohio, is the home of the Professional Football Hall of Fame. Pastor Harold Henniger had suffered a heart attack and was recovering at the Aultman Hospital. On the radio he heard about the Hall of Fame, and thought back to his Bible reading in Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Read more...
One of Lyman Stewart’s evangelistic efforts was the Los Angeles Bible House. Under this ministry, William Townsend was sent as a colporteur missionary to Guatemala in 1917, with Spanish Bibles. However, the tribal people spoke Cakchiquel, not Spanish. Townsend spent fourteen years learning the language and translating the Bible into the heart language of the Cakqhikel. Supported by the Quaker 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...
