Category: Chicago

Trail hitters remain firm, say converts. Circa 1918.

When revival calls crowds to the aisle, a critical question follows: “Will that decision endure?” In 1918, after Billy Sunday’s campaigns, journalists followed up with converts and organizers to ask whether the spiritual fervor survived time. The answers—preserved in this article—offer rare insight into how revival might seed long-term change. Read on to see what those trail hitters said, and what it teaches us about lasting faith.

The Washington Herald. Tue, Jan 29, 1918 ·Page 8

TRAIL HITTERS REMAIN FIRM, SAY CONVERTS

Effect of Sunday Revivals in Other Cities Has Been Permanent.

BY ARTHUR JOYCE.

Does ‘trail hitting’ at Billy Sunday campaign meetings show any permanent results? Are those persons who walk the sawdust aisles over at the Tabernacle interested only in formally shaking the hand of the evangelist – or is there something definite behind it all?

Thousands who have seen approximately 6,000 persons ‘hit the trail’ at the Tabernacle in this city are asking these questions. And about the only way in which they can be answered with any degree of accuracy is to look over the field where the evangelist has campaigned and see what’s the situation a year or two following the campaigns.

I recently had a talk with two influential representatives of cities in which Billy has campaigned and I put the questions to each of them. One is Gen. C. Edward Murray, quartermaster general of New Jersey, the other is Lucius L. Jeddy, head of the Merchants National Bank, of Syracuse, N.Y. Both were Billy Sunday ‘trail hitters’ – Gen. Murray in Trenton, N.J., and Mr. Eddy in Syracuse.

Big Sunday Club.

Gen. Murray is president of the Billy Sunday Club, of Trenton, an organization of ‘trail hitters’ formed after the evangelist’s Trenton campaign. That club now has a big membership and every member in it is personally interested in leading others to Christ.

‘The campaign in Trenton,’ said Gen. Murray, ‘awakened a remarkable interest in Christian work, especially among the men and women who ‘hit the trail.’ Churches have increased their membership to a remarkable extent; booze joints that keeled over; Sunday schools are crowded and everywhere there is shown a wonderful interest in things religious. I know many noted men who have passed up the cigars and joined the church and I know of one politician who formerly represented the booze interests, who has been converted and is now an active election on an anti-booze ticket.

‘On the whole, I should say that the Sunday campaign in Trenton has done more to evangelize the city than any other one happening in recent years. And I’m satisfied that the men who ‘hit the trail’ are still going right with the Lord and are doing their best to lead the aisles for Christ.’

Mr. Eddy told of the workings of the Billy Sunday Club in Syracuse. Every member of the organization was a ‘trail hitter’ and in the last two years, he said, they have led more than 20,000 men to Christian lives.

‘The ‘trail hitters’ not only themselves ‘stuck to their declarations to stand on God’s side,’ said Mr. Eddy, ‘but they’ve inaugurated an active campaign to bring others into the fold. And if that doesn’t show the permanency of ‘trail hitting’ I’ve lost my guess.’

Senator Vardaman, of Mississippi, made the statement that if the evangelist shall win only one person to Christ in his Washington campaign, ‘we will have been well repaid for our efforts in the revival cause here.’

In Philadelphia – three years after the Sunday campaign – there is a ‘trail-hitting’ organization in virtually every church where the evangelist assisted in the revival. There are probably 7,000 members enrolled in these organizations, and they’re campaigning every day to bring others to the church.

In Scranton, Pa., one church added 2,000 members to its rolls within six months after the Sunday campaign. Another Scranton church increased its enrollment by 1,000 in a year following the campaign. The same is true of the churches in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and in Carbondale, Pa., churches.

In Wichita, Kan., three men of national reputation have been converted who call ‘gospel teams.’ These ‘teams’ go about the country and work in the Middle West to preach the gospel and tell of the wonderful work Billy Sunday did in their campaigns. Out of these teams has been formed a National Federation of Gospel Teams’ which are made up of leading men throughout the country – all of whom are either ‘trail hitters’ at Sunday meetings or are in the church as a result of the work of ‘trail-hitters’ who have taken up personal work. These teams have a record of 11,000 conversions to their credit.

Don’t All Stay.

Detroit has a ‘trail-hitters’ club’ of nearly 1,000 members; Los Angeles has one with about 500 men on its rolls; Atlanta has just finished organization of a Billy Sunday Club with several hundred members. And in virtually every city and town where the evangelist has campaigned there are similar organizations continuing the work Billy began. Nearly every ‘trail hitter’ in these places has associated himself with these clubs.

Of course, every person who ‘hits the trail’ isn’t a sticker. But records made by Sunday party experience year after Billy’s campaigns in leading cities show that approximately 85 per cent of those who ‘walk the aisles’ represent permanent converts.

The object of the ‘trail hitting’ is not only to bring to the ‘front’ in a public confession of faith those who have been more before taken any stand in the matter. Billy’s ‘invitations’ are intended to induce the church members to ‘reconsecrate’ themselves and ask to be more earnest Christian life from those who have already ‘accepted’ Christianity.

Legacy & What It Means
This article offers more than historical curiosity: it reveals Sunday’s conviction that conversion must stick. His method didn’t end with a call to the front — it extended into communities, clubs, and networks of believers committed to nurturing change.

Application for Today
In contemporary ministries, it’s easy to emphasize decisions without long-term follow-through. What lessons does Sunday’s model offer us? Perhaps this: revival without discipleship is incomplete.

Reflection & Invitation
If “trail hitters” in 1918 were expected to keep walking, not wander off, who in your context needs that same encouragement today? How will the faith you ignite be sustained, multiplied, and anchored in life?

Rev. J.S. Ladd on Billy Sunday, 1918

I believe profoundly in Mr. Sunday, in the purity of his motive, in the truth of his purpose, the sincerity of his aim, and the transparency of his ambition. He undoubtedly has a divine commission to preach the gospel and the people hear him gladly. Mr. Sunday has a remarkable personality. It is one of his big assets. He is in possession of that undefinable something, the influence of which men feel but cannot explain.

I believe that in Chicago Mr. Sunday’s personality will count for more than in other cities because it has a fuller chance to come to the fore, coming back, as he does, to his home city, the city of so many pleasant associations and sacred memories.

Chicago Tribune. Mon, Mar 18, 1918 ·Page 4

How did the 1918 Billy Sunday Chicago campaign do by the numbers?

Chicago Tribune. Mon, May 20, 1918 ·Page 1

Bily Sunday Tabernacle. Chicago, Navy Pier, c. 1918.

49,165 SOULS AND $56,000, BILLY’S SCORE

Great Crowd Hears Revivalist Close Campaign.

Trail hitters (total) ………… 49,165

Attendance at tabernacle and meetings led by members of the Sunday party ………… 1,200,000

Money raised for current expenses ………… $135,000

Money raised for free will offering to Billy Sunday, which he will give in its entirety to the Pacific Garden mission ………… $56,000

Number of churches co-operating ………… 424

Length of campaign (including 11 Sundays) ………… 10 weeks

BY THE REV. W. B. NORTON.

Billy Sunday has prepared his own epitaph, which he says he wants chiseled on his tombstone when he shall be laid away in Forest Home cemetery, where, he says, he expects his body to rest. It is this:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.”

Last night Billy announced the end of his revival campaign here by saying:

“I’ve done my duty. Like a physician after he hands the new baby over to the mother and the nurse, takes his departure, so I commit these new converts to the churches and I go on my way to other fields.”

A Strenuous Finish.

For the first time since Billy began preaching in the tabernacle at Chicago avenue and the lake ten weeks ago, he pulled off both coat and collar and went at his task as in the old baseball days. It was his final sermon and he put into it all the power and feeling he could command.

The rain beat heavily on the roof, and occasionally an umbrella began to rise, but was quickly put down again, so as not to obstruct the view of others. Finally all of the roof windows were closed and the doors opened. At least 13,000 were present, many of them standing. A considerable number were in the seats at 5 o’clock with knitting or papers in hands, determined to have a seat for the final service, no matter how large the crowd.

Appeals for the free will offering for Billy, which is to go to the Pacific Garden mission, were made by George W. Dixon, chairman of the committee on the offering; W. A. Peterson, chairman of the finance committee; the Rev. John Timothy Stone, and Mel Trotter, superintendent of the Pacific Garden mission.

1918, Navy Pier.

Chicago Tribune. Mon, May 20, 1918 ·Page 4

Sunday Is Pleased.

“I consider the most remarkable feature of the meetings has been the evident hunger of the people to hear the gospel, their eagerness of attention, and the steadiness with which they have come,” Mr. Sunday said yesterday. “Every time the invitation has been given there has been a steady stream of hitters, not as I have seen it elsewhere, many coming at one meeting and almost no one the next time. I feel that it has been a remarkable meeting.”

Chicago Tribune. Tue, Jun 25, 1918 ·Page 3

The building (at Chicago Avenue and the lake) is the largest tabernacle ever built for the use of Mr. Sunday and was fourteen feet longer than the next largest one built in New York. It accommodated an audience of 16,000 when the vestibule was filled, as was done on several occasions during the revival campaign.

More images of the Chicago 1918 campaign.

What did Billy Sunday’s 1918 campaign mean to Chicago?

The Muscatine Journal. Tue, May 21, 1918 ·Page 3

WHAT BILLY SUNDAY MEANT.

“Billy” Sunday has come and gone. His mission is a matter of history. What did it signify? Some of the facts of the great revival are indicated in figures. The famous “trail” of the tabernacle for example was touched by nearly 50,000 pairs of feet seeking Mr. Sunday.

Chicago Daily News, no copyright.

The combined audiences at all the Sunday meetings are again reckoned at something like 1,200,000. Plainly a very considerable section of Chicago listened to the Sunday message. No politician, nor even a statesman, ever enjoyed such a hearing.

The novelty in the evangelist’s preachments arose from his unique personality. The doctrines preached by the Rev. William A. Sunday were essentially much the same as those the Chicago of another generation heard from the Rev. Dwight Moody. They were the same to be heard today in the four hundred-odd churches which were represented by the Sunday campaign.

The homely virtues, individual rectitude in business, personal morality in domestic life—these were the essentials. The code preached by “Billy” Sunday was familiar to his congregations. It is characteristically American. The “thou shalts” and “thou shalt nots” are the precepts and the prohibitions of the United States.

Mr. Sunday gave a new emphasis to a creed learned by most of his hearers in infancy. Like all successful missionaries in the home field, he affirmed persuasively what his converts believed, but did not consistently practice.

Many of those who renewed their religious pledges in the tabernacle will be better citizens. Chicago like Billy Sunday. His sincerity and disinterestedness made a good impression.

Every one wishes him success in his next public work.—Chicago Herald- Examiner.

For more information:

The Wheaton College Archives. The Chicago Campaign, 1918.

When did Billy Sunday host an evangelistic campaign in Chicago?

Billy Sunday’s 1918 revival campaign in Chicago, held from March 10 to May 20, was one of his most ambitious and high-profile efforts. It occurred during a pivotal moment in American history, as the nation grappled with World War I, the temperance movement, and the looming influenza pandemic.

The Billy Sunday Tabernacle, Chicago. 1918. Bill Sunday (left), Homer Rodeheaver (right).
Public domain.

Campaign Overview

The campaign was strategically timed to bolster support for Prohibition in Chicago, a city known for its vibrant nightlife and strong opposition to temperance reforms. Sunday, a fervent advocate for the ban on alcohol, delivered his fiery sermon “Get on the Water Wagon,” in which he vividly denounced the liquor industry. He likened the “booze interests” to a “rattlesnake that wriggled its miserable carcass out of hell,” vowing to fight them relentlessly—even “on ice” if hell froze over.

Despite his passionate rhetoric and widespread attention, Sunday’s efforts did not yield the desired political outcome. Chicago voters rejected a local Prohibition initiative during the campaign, a defeat famously referenced in Frank Sinatra’s song “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)” with the line: “The town that Billy Sunday could not shut down.”

Attendance and Impact

The campaign drew substantial crowds, with estimates suggesting that over 650,000 people attended the meetings over the course of seven weeks.

Sunday’s dynamic preaching style and the campaign’s extensive organization contributed to its broad reach and influence.

Legacy

Although the immediate goal of enacting local Prohibition in Chicago was not achieved, the campaign underscored Sunday’s significant role in the national temperance movement. His efforts contributed to the broader momentum that led to the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, establishing Prohibition across the United States. The Chicago campaign remains a notable example of Sunday’s impact on American society during a transformative era.