Former professional baseball player-turned urban evangelist. Follow this daily blog that chronicles the life and ministry of revivalist preacher William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (1862-1935)
Three years after the Carthage meetings, a Mattoon, Illinois newspaper said that 80% of Carthage converts were still “living the new life. While two years after Keokuk, 75% of the converts “are still leading the new life.” – JG-TC: Journal Gazette and Times-Courier (Mattoon, Illinois) · Mon, Mar 19, 1906 · Page 1.
Five years after the Belvidere revival of September 1901, a Belvidere newspaper reported that membership of Belvidere Methodist church in 1901 was 500 persons, and five years later it was 850, showing the ‘stickiness’ of Sunday converts over a long period of time. – Belvidere Daily Republican (Belvidere, Illinois) · Mon, Mar 26, 1906 · Page 2.
A person who witnessed Billy preaching at Princeton, Illinois, said this of the Evangelist’s preaching:
“When it comes to preaching Billy is a storm, a whirlwind, a cyclone, hurricane, a tornado, a-well, everything indicative of power. He preaches like his life depended upon it. He preaches like he had it to do.” Adding, “As long as Rev. William A. Sunday stays on track and labors to call men back to the old path – the gospel path – he should be allowed to work without opposition from Christian people, even if his methods are sensational and unique and his language at times is shocking.”
Bureau County Tribune (Princeton, Illinois) · Fri, Mar 9, 1906 · Page 3.
From February 11 to March 11, 1906, evangelist Billy Sunday conducted a major revival campaign in Princeton, drawing sustained crowds and producing significant conversion totals that reinforced his growing reputation as one of the most effective evangelists in the Midwest. A temporary tabernacle seating approximately 3,600 people was filled nightly, indicating the strong regional interest in Sunday’s preaching and the extensive cooperation of local churches.
The meetings quickly produced measurable results. One report noted 919 conversions in a single day on February 24, illustrating the intense response often seen at the height of Sunday’s campaigns. Despite severe winter weather—including one of the worst storms of the season on March 3—attendance and participation remained strong. By March 8, newspapers reported 1,298 converts, and by the close of the revival on March 11, the total number of recorded conversions had reached 2,325.
Contemporary observers described the atmosphere in Princeton as spiritually charged. A visiting pastor reported that the “city was aflame with the revival spirit,” while others praised Sunday’s dynamic preaching style, likening his delivery to a “storm” or “cyclone” in its intensity. His methods, though sometimes criticized as sensational, were widely regarded by supporters as effective in reaching large audiences—especially men—who might otherwise avoid church.
The Princeton campaign also contributed to Sunday’s rapidly expanding influence across the region. Shortly afterward, newspapers noted that since October 1905 he had reportedly received about $12,000 in offerings and recorded 9,000 conversions, with 20,000 conversions attributed to his work across the Rock River Valley of Illinois. The Princeton meetings thus formed a significant chapter in the early expansion of Sunday’s evangelistic career.
Sources: The Dixon Evening Telegraph, March 2, 1906, p. 5. Bureau County Tribune (Princeton, IL), March 9, 1906, p. 3. Freeport Journal-Standard (Freeport, IL), February 26, 1906, pp. 1, 5; March 8, 1906, p. 4. Journal Gazette and Times-Courier (Mattoon, IL), March 19, 1906, p. 1.
Able Leader of the Singing at the Sunday Revival Meetings.
Note: This account was published in the Freeport Daily Journal in 1906.
“Without good music, without good, stirring gospel singing, an evangelistic revival campaign would not make much headway. As choir leader and singer for the Sunday meetings, Prof. Fred G. Fischer is the right man in the right place. He was born at Mendota. He is of German parentage and inherits his musical talents. Mr. Fischer is a nephew of P. P. Bilhorn, the well-known gospel singer and song writer, and promises to become as famous as his illustrious uncle. He has given all his time to the study of music since he was eleven years of age, having quite school at that age for the purpose of cultivating his artistic talent.
Fred G. Fischer
Mr. Fischer studied with Robert Webster and Deveries, the great French vocalist. At first, he began as an independent singer, going from place to place, assisting pastors wherever he found one needing his services. He was in this work when he received a letter from Mr. Sunday, who had heard his sing, and a bargain was made for the two to travel together. Mr. Fischer went to the next appointment and was there for two days conducting the meetings before Mr. Sunday came. He has been with the evangelist ever since and expects to remain with him as long as there is work to do.
Mr. Fischer was married about two years ago, and lives in Chicago. He has a good voice, and, knowing how to use it to the best advantage, has few equals in leading a choir. Possessed of fine social qualities, he has already become popular with Freeport’s musical talent.”
The Daily Journal (Freeport, Illinois) · Tue, May 1, 1906 · Page 5.
In October 1906 Billy preached to a crowd of roughly 800 people in Salida, Colorado, at First Presbyterian Church. During his message he exhorted the crowd…..
Read good books and keep good company. Every gambler and drunkard became so by imitating the gang he went with. Good books and good companions are to character what water is to the fruit trees, the grasses and the vegetables in this beautiful valley.
There are a few hundred books in the present Winona Lake home that Billy lived in for the last 30 years of his ministry. On the shelf, one can find A History of the American People, by Wodrow Wilson in the first edition (1902).
While Sunday’s authority came from Scripture, A History of the American People offered a grand, moral narrative of the United States that fit seamlessly with his revivalistic call: a chosen nation needing repentance and reform to fulfill its destiny. Wilson’s combination of national mission, moral urgency, and literary flair reinforced Sunday’s belief that evangelism and patriotism were inseparable in early-20th-century America.
Morgan Library at Grace College (Winona Lake) has several cards or notes in which Sunday and Wilson communicated together. They seemed to have liked each other.
If you lived in small-town America a century ago and heard that a massive tent was going up just outside of town, you knew exactly what was coming: the Chautauqua was back.
Canning, p. 26
But not just any Chautauqua. This was the circuit Chautauqua—a full-blown cultural caravan, rolling into communities like a blend of TED Talk, county fair, gospel revival, and Broadway road show. It was, as historian Charlotte Canning describes it, “the greatest aggregation of public performers the world has ever known.”
Forget the dusty image of civic lectures and sober-minded schoolteachers. Circuit Chautauquas were performance-driven experiences, intentionally designed to shape the American imagination. They were mobile festivals of ideas, music, drama, and moral vision—staged under a giant canvas tent, and scheduled with industrial precision across the country.
Canning helps us see these not merely as education-on-wheels, but as orchestrated acts of cultural storytelling. At their heart, circuit Chautauquas were about performing a kind of “Americanness”—a staged identity that included democracy, morality, individual responsibility, and civic pride. And these weren’t abstract ideas: they were embodied in actors, lecturers, and musicians who took the platform with everything from Shakespearean monologues to lectures on temperance and suffrage.
The Paradox? These events, often remembered as wholesome and nostalgic, were also deeply commercial. Promoters like Roy Ellison and Keith Vawter didn’t just want to elevate the public—they wanted to make a million. Yet that’s part of the genius: they succeeded in selling culture as spectacle, without cheapening either.
To Canning, the tent was a stage—not just for performers, but for the entire community to see itself. Who belonged? Who was excluded? What did it mean to be an American in 1910 or 1920? Every act—whether musical trio or biblical dramatist—answered those questions in subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) ways.
Monmouth, Illinois chautauqua, 1907 postcard. Author’s collection. Billy spoke at Monmouth, August 17, 1906.
So the next time you think of rural America in the early 20th century, don’t just imagine plows and porches. Picture the circus-sized tent at the edge of town. The banners. The folding chairs. The packed crowd.
And inside that tent? America on stage.
Resource cited Charlotte M. Canning. The Most American Thing in America: Circuit Chautauqua as Performance. 2005.
Evangelist Billy Sunday (1862-1935) 