Davenport, Ira Erastus (17 September 1839–08 July 1911), and William Henry Harrison Davenport (01 February 1841–01 July 1877), mediums and stage magicians, were born in Buffalo, New York, the sons of Ira Davenport, a police officer, and Virtue Honeysett. Following publicity about ...
Article
Davenport, Ira Erastus (17 September 1839–08 July 1911), mediums and stage magicians
Robert S. Ellwood
Image
Davenport, Ira Erastus (17 September 1839–08 July 1911)
In
Ira Davenport [left to right] Ira Davenport and Harry Houdini, c. 1910. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-66398).
Article
Davenport, William Henry Harrison
See Davenport, Ira Erastus
Article
Messner, Tammy Faye (07 March 1942–20 July 2007), evangelical personality and television performer who rose to fame as Tammy Faye Bakker
Jonathan Root
Messner, Tammy Faye (07 March 1942–20 July 2007), evangelical personality and television performer who rose to fame as Tammy Faye Bakker, was born Tamara Faye LaValley in International Falls, Minnesota, to Rachel and Carl LaValley as the oldest of eight children, two born before her parents’ divorce when she was three and six born after her mother remarried. Life was difficult for Tammy in the gritty working-class town. After her mother’s divorce, the family were outcasts in their strict Pentecostal church where divorce and remarriage were sins equal to adultery. Despite the open hostility often directed their way, the church remained the focal point of their lives. The family was poor. Their house, which friends remembered as “squalid,” did not have indoor plumbing and only had three bedrooms for the entire family with four kids often sharing one bed. When Tammy was ten, she experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues at her mother’s church. She was also popular at church and school. She won queen of Bible camp two summers in a row and participated in theater productions at school. It was while playing a part in ...
Article
Sparks, Jared (1789-1866), historian, editor, and clergyman
Richard J. Cox
Sparks, Jared (10 May 1789–14 March 1866), historian, editor, and clergyman, was born in Willington, Connecticut, the son of Eleanor Orcutt, who nine months later married Joseph Sparks, a farmer. His early life was somewhat unstable. In the mid-1790s he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle to relieve the burdens of the many children in the family, and with his adoptive family, he settled in 1800 in Camden, New York. In 1805 he moved home for a brief time and then went to live with another uncle in Tolland, Connecticut. There he apprenticed as carpenter and taught in local schools. Early on he displayed interests in literary and historical pursuits along with the more common interest in theology. While in Arlington, Vermont, he organized the Arlington Philosophical Society in 1808. He studied at the Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, beginning in September 1809, the result of Sparks’s early interests in the ministry and his receipt of a scholarship. There he met and became lifelong friends with another future New England historian, ...
Article
Urrea, Teresa (1873-1906), healer, psychic, and mystic
Anna Macías
Urrea, Teresa (15 October 1873–11 January 1906), healer, psychic, and mystic, was born on a ranch near Ocoroni, Sinaloa, Mexico, the daughter of Tomás Urrea, a wealthy rancher, and Cayetana Chavez, a poor mestiza of Tehueco origin. Her parents were not married. Born in a humble ...
