Dwight L. Moody

MOODY, Dwight Lyman. b. Northfield, Massachusetts, 5 February 1837; d. Northfield, 22 December 1899. Moody, the pre-eminent evangelist of the late 19th century, grew up in rural Massachusetts but migrated to Boston and then Chicago as a young man. In Chicago he served as the first salaried president of the YMCA and increasingly established himself as a lay religious leader with no specific denominational ties. In 1873 he set out for Britain to launch a revival campaign, a highly successful endeavor that established him as a popular evangelist. In Chicago Moody began his partnership with the musician Ira D. Sankey* and the trip to Britain solidified that relationship. After returning to the...