(The World’s Famous Evangelist)
His Early Life, a Dramatic Portrayal of His Conversion, and the
Disintegration of the Old White Stocking Baseball Team, of Which He was a
Member
Rev. “Billy” Sunday (as he is familiarly known) was born in a log cabin in
the backwoods of Story County, Iowa, November 19, 1862. Not long after his
birth his father went to the Civil War and never returned. Billy remained
home until he was about fourteen years of age, and as a hired hand later
lived with Colonel John Scott, former Lieutenant Governor of Iowa, and
was enabled to acquire a high-school education. He tried various lines
of work, from a hired hand at sixteen years old to a furniture polisher,
driver of a hearse, member of a volunteer hose company, railroad fireman,
ball player, student and now evangelist.