WILLIAM BIEDERWOLF was
the seventh child of two German immigrants
to America, Michael and Abolana Schnetzer
Biederwolf. He was born in and grew up in
Monticello, Indiana. After receiving his secondary
education, he taught school briefly and, during
an evangelistic meeting in Monticello, made
a public confession of his faith in Christ.
Shortly afterwards, in the fall of 1886, he
enrolled as a student at Wabash College in
Crawfordsville, Indiana. In 1890 he enrolled
at Princeton University in New Jersey, where
he received his A.B. in 1892 and his M.A.
in 1894. He was also on the football team
and during the summer he worked in city rescue
missions in New York and Pennsylvania. He
next attended Princeton Seminary, from which
he graduated in 1895. Upon graduation, he
spent a year assisting evangelist B. Fay Mills.
He received a fellowship from Princeton to
study Greek. He left in April 1896 to study
at the University of Berlin in Germany, following
which he toured Palestine. After a stay in
Paris, he returned to the U.S. in 1897. He
was ordained as a Presbyterian minister the
same year. His first pastorate was Broadway
Presbyterian Church of Logansport, Indiana.
The next year, 1898, he volunteered for service
in the Spanish-American War and was made chaplain
of the 161 Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His
year of military service included six months
in Cuba. He returned to Logansport for two
more years as a pastor and in 1900 resigned
to go into evangelistic work full time.
For a number of years, he
spent much of his time assisting in the evangelistic
campaigns of J. Wilbur Chapman. Then, as he
became better known, he began to hold more
of his own meetings. Between 1910 and 1920,
he was often listed with Chapman and Billy
Sunday as one of the leading evangelists in
the country. Besides city-wide meetings, he
also was involved in attempts to organize
state-wide simultaneous meetings. In 1923-1924,
he left the U.S. for a preaching tour of the
Far East. He served for a time as president
of the Interdenominational Association of
Evangelists and then as chairman of the Commission
on Evangelism of the Federal Council of Churches.
In 1909, he began the Family Altar League
which encouraged members of families to pray
and have devotions together. Many of his activities
centered on Winona Lake, Indiana. From 1922-1939,
he served as director of the Winona Lake Bible
Conference. He also served as director of
the Winona School of Theology from 1922-1933
and was president from 1933-1939. These posts
were in addition to the pastorate of the Royal
Poinciana Chapel which he held from 1929 until
his death on September 10, 1939. He had several
books published, including several volumes
of selected sermons. He received an honorary
Doctorate of Divinity from Northern Baptist
Theological Seminary in 1931 and an honorary
Doctor of Laws from Bever College in 1934.
In April 1896, William married
Ida Casad, who also grew up in Monticello.
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