Ephemera of Henry Wellington Stough - Collection 106

[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent. Some or all of this collection can be borrowed through interlibrary loan. ]

Table of Contents

Brief Description of This Collection

Title Page and Restrictions

Biography of Henry Wellington Stough

An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)

Lists of Books, Microfilm, and Photographs in This Collection (Location Records)

Books
Microfilm
Photographs

List of the Contents of Boxes of Paper Records in This Collection (Container List)

4 Boxes (DC; 1.6 cubic feet), Books, Microfilm, Photographs

Restrictions

There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.

Biography

Full name: Henry Wellington Stough

Birth date: August 15, 1870, in Pulaski Township, Williams County, Ohio

Death date: October 27, 1939, in Savannah, Georgia

Family:

Parents: William Edward Stough and Frances Jane (Newman) Stough

Siblings: Raymond Ward

Marital Status: Married to Helen Amelia Russ, June 23, 1898, in Hyde Park, Illinois

Children: William Russ (b. 1899), Paul Pinney (b. 1901), Rachel Elizabeth (b. 1903), Henry Wellington Jr. (b. 1905), Helen Russ (b. 1909), Philip Newman (b. 1910), Harold Edward (b. 1912), and Virginia Eloise (b. 1914)

Education:

1888-1891 Oberlin College
1891-1893 Moody Bible Institute
1893-1896 Chicago Theological Seminary
1911 Received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Defiance College, Ohio

Career:

1893 Chosen by Dwight L. Moody to preach in the "revival" tents erected during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
1894-1901 Pastor of the Third Congregational Church, Oak Park, Illinois
1901-1939 Began full-time evangelistic work initially with Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman
1906-1912 Secretary/treasurer of the Interdenominational Evangelists Association

Other significant information:

Stough was also author of several volumes on religious topics during his career. Some of the titles include Across the Deadline of Amusements, Faith and Prayer in Their Conflicts with Unbelief, Stubble or Silver, The Three Resurrections, The Outlaw, The Great Seal of the United States, The Fight in the Air, and The Three-Fold Resurrection.

[NOTE: In the Scope and Content description, the notation "folder 2-5" means Box 2, Folder 5.]

Scope and Content

Arrangement: Alphabetical by folder title, most of which correspond to document types (such as correspondence, sermon notes, etc.)

Date Range: 1911-1939, n.d.

Volume: .2 cubic feet

Boxes: 1

Geographic coverage: United States

Type of documents: Books, campaign planning materials, correspondence, manuscript, microfilm, photographs, scrapbook, sermon notebooks, sermon notes, stationary letterhead

Correspondents: Stough to members of the Interdenominational Association of Evangelists and between Stough and James Gray

Notes: This collection contains items relating to Stough's ministry. Materials include three sermons, an autobiography, correspondence, revival ephemera, photographs, a microfilm reel of a scrapbook Stough kept from one revival, a copy of another scrapbook, "Stough Evangelistic Campaign, Evansville, Indiana, August 6 to November 5, 1916," and sermon notebooks (see subseries description which follows).

Folder 1-1 contains campaign planning materials such as instructions to the finance leader regarding the evangelist's remuneration; instructions to the advertising committee; and a listing of terms and conditions for calling evangelists Stough and Conner. Folder 1-4 contains a copy of the Indiana Federated Committee for Evangelistic Work stationery. Names of those serving on the advisory board and general offices of the committee are available of the letterhead.

Folder 1-5 contains a letter from Stough to members of the Interdenominational Association of Evangelists of which Stough served as the secretary-treasurer. Names of the officers and board of directors are available on the letterhead. The letter contains a summary of the annual meeting and a financial report. Folder 1-9 contains a very interesting exchange between Stough and James Gray of the Moody Bible Institute about divine healing. Gray's reply mentions Aimee Semple McPherson.

A manuscript written by Stough is available in folder 1-3. The manuscript contains many illustrations from his ministry, his testimony, reminiscences about other evangelists, and a biographical sketch.

The microfilm was made from a scrapbook kept by Stough of two revival campaigns held in Altoona and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in January, February, March, and April, respectively, 1915. The scrapbook consists of newspaper clippings of both campaigns, detailing nightly meetings, reporting sermons with topics and varying degrees of content, city response, statistics of attendance and financial support. There are also: cartoons; photographs of the tabernacle used in Lancaster; reports of reactions in the community, particularly to Stough's prohibition stand; comments on the numbers of community groups and churches influenced by the revivals; and stories about staff members. Stough was assisted in these sessions by his choir and music director D. Lanning Spooner and assistant evangelist Sara S. Palmer, who preached in his place during a brief illness while he was in Altoona. There are also photographs of his full staff of assistants reproduced for local newspapers.

The scrapbook (folder 1-8) contains newspaper clippings of the seven-week revival held in Evansville, Indiana, which describe advance preparations and community reactions, tabernacle building, and preparations for choirs. In the sixty-two sermons delivered for that campaign, Stough attacked a variety of community and personal sins, including dancing, card playing, movies on Sunday, church bazaars, smoking, graft, and prostitution. Portions of these sermons and their topics are included in the clippings. Some of the clippings accuse the press of boycotting publicity for the revival and give an accurate portrayal both of community reactions and Stough's staff's reactions to the campaign.

Also included in the scrapbook are reprints of each pamphlet presumably distributed during the campaign. They include many topics, such as a detailed offensive against playing cards and dancing, profile of the ideal Christian worker and the need for revival, and a wide variety of theological and biblical topics, such as paternal responsibility, qualifications of a soul winner, remorse and repentance, revival of prayer, and "When Devils Laugh."

These papers reflect a varied and detailed picture of Stough's work, with insights into his preaching and reactions to it provided by the newspaper reports of his sermons and the pamphlets made available through his staff.

A book complied by Henry W. Stough, Jr., Dr. Henry Wellington Stough "A Man of God" "Messages and Writings," in folder 1-10 contains sermons and messages and a biography of his father. A second book by Stough, Jr., Dr. Henry Wellington Stough, "A Man of God" "A Tribute to His Life and His Book "Highlights and Spotlights," in folder 1-11 includes a biography of Stough and A Cross Section of Evangelism Since Moody, material similar to that found in folder 1-3.

Arrangement: Numerically by volume number listed on the notebook

Date range: n.d.

Volume: 1.4 cubic feet

Boxes: 1-4

Subseries: Sermon notebooks of Henry W. Stough

Type of documents: Sermon notebooks

Notes: The collection includes eighteen looseleaf sermon notebooks of Stough. They contain typewritten sermon notes, outlines, clippings, charts that Stough probably created between World War I and 1939. Titles are based on information on the cover, spine or first page. Six of the notebooks include materials on the Kingdom-Gospel and eschatology (folders 1-12,13, folders 2-1,2,3,4), two each on the Depression and national crisis in the US (folders 2-5, 3-1), books of the Bible (folders 3-2,3), evening sermons (folders 3-4,5), and spiritual life with Christ (folders 4-3,4), and four others on topics for Christian living (folder 3-6), prophecy (folder 4-1), moral problems (folder 4-2), and miscellaneous sermons (folder 4-5).

Provenance

The materials for this collection were received by the Center in December 1978, December 1979, May and August 1982, April 1983, and November 1988 from Paul Stough and in May 1984, January 1992, and February and April 1995 from Henry W. Stough, Jr.

Accession 78-48, 79-144, 82-72, 82-117, 83-36
March 5, 1980
Mary Ann Buffington
S. Kouns

January 25, 1983, revised
Frances L. Brocker
J. Nasgowitz

May 16, 1983, revised
Robert Shuster

Accession 84-70, 88-126, 92-1, 95-27, 95-79
January 31, 2001
Wayne D. Weber

The following items have been given to the BGC LIBRARY (now Evangelism & Missions Collection of the Wheaton College Archives & Special Collection):

Pena, James. John B. Pinney: Presbyterian Missionary (Birmingham, Alabama: M.A. Thesis, Samford University; 1975).

Stough, Henry W. Across the Dead Line of Amusements (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company; 1912).

________. Bible Teachings About Wealth: Book K (Ridgecrest, NC: AIM Publishers; n.d.).

________. Faith and Healing (Knoxville, TN: AIM Publishers; n.d.)

________. The Five Gospels: Book F (Knoxville, TN: AIM. Publishers; n.d.).

________. The Outlaw--An Address on "Booze and Booze Fighters" (Bible School Park, New York: Gospel Publishing House; 1913).

For each item listed below, there is a master negative and two positive reels; one complete positive set is in the CENTER LIBRARY MICROFILM ROOM:

Reel 1 - Scrapbook of clippings from a series of revival meetings in Altoona, Pennsylvania, January-February, 1915, and six weeks in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March-April, 1915, conducted by Henry Stough and assistants.

The following items are located in the PHOTO FILE; request by folder title (in bold) at the beginning of each entry below.

STOUGH, HENRY W. Henry Stough alone (wearing a YMCA uniform, probably during World War I) and with William Jennings Bryan. 3 b&w.

CONTAINER LIST

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Last Revised: 6/22/06
Expiration: indefinite