Falwell, Jerry (11 August 1933–15 May 2007), fundamentalist pastor, televangelist, and conservative political activist, was born Jerry Lamon Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia, the son of Carey Hezekiah Falwell, a businessman, and Helen Virgie Beasley. Helen was a devout Baptist, and Carey, whom his son described as an atheist, was an entrepreneur who started with a general store and expanded into a local network of service stations, hotels, and a regional bus company. The couple's daughter died at age ten, and Carey Falwell shot and killed his own brother in 1931, the culmination of a long dispute over their shared interest in profiting from bootleg liquor; he was later acquitted for acting in self-defense. Jerry Falwell attributed these events to his father's “lifelong struggle with the Enemy,” by which he meant Satan....
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Falwell, Jerry (1933-2007), fundamentalist pastor, televangelist, and conservative political activist
Randall Balmer
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Graham, Jr., William Franklin “Billy” (07 Nov. 1918–21 Feb. 2018), protestant evangelist
Grant Wacker
Graham, Jr., William Franklin “Billy” (07 Nov. 1918–21 Feb. 2018), protestant evangelist, was born on a farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, the eldest of four children of William Franklin Graham and Morrow Coffey Graham.
Graham grew up in comfortable circumstances. His father, a successful dairyman near Charlotte, enjoyed comparative prosperity, while his mother, a musician, taught piano at home. As an adult Graham remembered how much he had disliked farm life. He also remembered how much he had liked girls, baseball, and fast cars. School did not play much of a role, and neither did religion....
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Moody, Dwight Lyman (1837-1899), evangelist
James F. Findlay
Moody, Dwight Lyman (05 February 1837–22 December 1899), evangelist, was born in Northfield, Massachusetts, the son of Edwin Moody, a bricklayer, and Betsey Holton. Raised in western Massachusetts, he deeply imbibed semirural New England values—a sense of family and place and personal attitudes emphasizing thrift, sobriety, and hard work. Yet as a teenager Moody was also drawn away from Northfield by the magnet of urban America. He went to Boston at the age of seventeen, then in 1856 he moved westward to the booming city of Chicago. His rural to urban migration and movement from New England to the Midwest replicated the experience of thousands of other young people. Moreover in 1875, almost at the height of his fame as an urban revivalist, Moody established his permanent home in Northfield, oscillating thereafter between that community and his revival work in great industrial centers. Both city and small town were embedded in him, as was true for many Americans of the late nineteenth century....
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Sankey, Ira David (1840-1908), singing evangelist and gospel songwriter
Edith L. Blumhofer
Sankey, Ira David (28 August 1840–14 August 1908), singing evangelist and gospel songwriter, was born in Edinburg, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, the son of David Sankey and Mary Leeper. Sankey’s father was a Pennsylvania state representative, collector of internal revenue, member of the State Board of Equalization, and newspaper editor. During Sankey’s childhood his father also farmed in West Central Pennsylvania, near the Ohio border. The family attended King’s Chapel near Western Reserve Harbor, where Sankey was converted during revival meetings in 1856. In 1857, when Sankey’s father accepted the presidency of a local bank, the family moved to New Castle, Pennsylvania, where Sankey joined the New Castle Methodist Church. By 1860 he was Sunday school superintendent and choir director....
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Scott, Walter (1796-1861), religious reformer, clergyman, and educator
David B. Eller
Scott, Walter (31 October 1796–23 April 1861), religious reformer, clergyman, and educator, was born in Moffat, Scotland, the son of John Scott, a music teacher, and Mary Innes. Young Scott’s early training was in music, and he became a skilled flutist. He attended the University of Edinburgh, where he studied music but also considered preparation for the ministry. Following graduation in 1818, however, he accepted an invitation from an uncle, George Innes, to immigrate to America. After tutoring Latin for less than a year in Jamaica, Long Island, New York, the restless Scott traveled on foot to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
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Stone, Barton Warren (24 December 1772–09 November 1844), evangelist, educator, and speculative theologian
Philip K. Goff
Stone, Barton Warren (24 December 1772–09 November 1844), evangelist, educator, and speculative theologian, was born near Port Tobacco, Maryland, the son of John Stone and Mary Warren, farmers. Reared in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, he moved in 1790 to North Carolina to study law at Guilford Academy. His career plans changed when he was converted to an aggressive form of evangelical Protestantism under the influence of ...
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Sunday, Billy (1862-1935), evangelist and professional baseball player
Lyle W. Dorsett
Sunday, Billy (19 November 1862–06 November 1935), evangelist and professional baseball player, was born William Ashley Sunday, Jr., in a two-room cabin on a small farm in Story County, Iowa, the son of William Ashley Sunday, Sr., and Mary Jane Corey. His father, a Union army private, died a few weeks later. His mother farmed rented land, but she was so poor that by 1872 Billy and his twelve-year-old brother had to be sent to the Civil War Soldiers’ Orphans Home in Glenwood, Iowa. In 1874 the boys were relocated to the Davenport, Iowa, orphan home. There they received about two years of schooling. In 1876 both boys voluntarily left the orphanage and hired out as farmhands in Story County....
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Whitefield, George (1714-1770), Anglican evangelist
David T. Morgan
Whitefield, George (16 December 1714–30 September 1770), Anglican evangelist, was born in Gloucester, England, the son of Thomas Whitefield and Elizabeth Edwards, innkeepers. While still in his teens Whitefield entered Oxford University and came under the influence of John and Charles Wesley. They persuaded him, following his graduation, to become a missionary to the American colony of Georgia. On 2 February 1738 the young minister, with the approval of the Georgia trustees and the Anglican hierarchy, sailed for Georgia aboard the ...
