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Dwight Moody Biography

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MOODY, Dwight Lyman (1837–99). An American evangelist. He was born at North-field, Mass., Feb. 5, 1837. At the age of 17 he became clerk in a shoe store in Boston. In 1856 he removed to Chicago, became active in mission work, and established a Sunday school which numbered over 1000 children. During the Civil War he was employed by the Christian Commission and subsequently as city missionary in Chicago by the Young Men's Christian Association. A church was built for him and, though unordained, he became its pastor. The building was destroyed by the fire of 1871, but a new one was erected to hold 2500 persons. In 1873 he visited Great Britain and Ireland with Ira D. Sankey, the singer, and in 1875 held a long series of meetings in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and in 1876 in New York. Similar services followed in many large cities throughout the country. In 1882 a second visit to England was made. Most of his work was done in the provinces, but he held large meetings also at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He also held meetings at Paris. His later years were applied to the building up of a seminary for young women at Northfield, Mass., a training school of Christian workers in Chicago, and the Mount Hermon School for Boys at Gill, near Northfield. He died at Northfield, Dec. 22,1899. Many of his sermons were published. Consult his biography by his son (New York, 1900).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XVI (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 219.