Judson W. Van De Venter

VAN DE VENTER, Judson Wheeler. b. near Dundee, Michigan, 5 December 1855; d. Tampa, Florida, 17 July 1939. Educated at Hillsdale College, Michigan, he was a student of drawing and painting, with ambitions to be a great artist. He studied painting in Europe in 1885, before becoming a teacher of art. He supported himself financially by teaching at Sharon High School, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, becoming supervisor of art in the public schools of the city, and then in Bradford, Pennsylvania. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church: he was encouraged by others to become an evangelist. Eventually he agreed. The decision was commemorated, then or some time later, by the writing...