Collection 741 - Papers of Daniel W. Nelson
Brief Description
Materials collected by Nelson for his doctoral thesis about evangelist B. Fay Mills. This includes his correspondence with possible sources of information, such as Mills’ daughter; copies and transcripts of articles and obituaries by and about Mills as well as some of his sermons.
The material in this collection consists entirely of material gathered by Rev. Daniel W. Nelson in the early 1960s for use in his dissertation on B. Fay Mills, except for one item in folder 1-6. His dissertation, which was awarded by Syracuse University in 1964, was entitled, “B. Fay Mills: Revivalist, Reformer, and Advocate of Free Religion.” Virtually every scrap of information that Nelson’s persistent search was able to dig up was included in the dissertation.
Nelson contacted a number of people who he hoped would be able to provide him with information, either because of their own firsthand knowledge of Mills, or as scholars of church history, or as people who could provide contact information for people with information. First and foremost was Mill’s daughter, Mary Miller.
Nelson’s correspondence did turn up people who knew Mills or had heard him or people who had secondhand knowledge of Mills from people who knew him. These include his daughter, Mary Mills Miller. Folder 1-6 contains two years of handwritten letters from Miller, as well as well as a chart of family information and a copy transcript of a 1911 letter her father write her on her 17th birthday, as well as a questionnaire she filled out for the Unitarian Historical Society about her father and her family. Her letters are mainly answers to questions Nelson asked her along with other details about her father and family that she remembered, such as Booker T. Washington once being a dinner guest and the fact that Mills campaigned for Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. A few memories of Mills’ grandson, Richard Mills is in folder 1-3.
Other eyewitness or secondhand accounts of Mills can be found in the letters of Henry Barraclough, Myra Schofield Poe and R. A. Torrey Jr. (folder 1-2) as well as Fred Barton, Preston Bradley, Lois Campbell (Mill’s daughter -in-law), Cyrus Cook, William McDermott, Vera Pugh, Morrison J. Thomas in folder 1-3. Manly Hall in folder 1-4, although he never met Mills, writes about traditions around him at the Los Angeles Fellowship he founded. Responses to Nelson’s inquiries about Mill’s education record to Phillip’s Academy, Carleton College, Lake Forest College, and the College of Wooster are in folder 1-3 and 1-4. Folders 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4 also have the responses to numerous other letters Nelson wrote to archives, churches, and other people and institutions that might have some scrap of information about Mills. Among the response is one in folder 1-2 from famed church historian Timothy L. Smith. The same folder contains a letter from the archivist of the Dwight L. Moody papers at Moody Bible Institute about Moody and Mills. He included a copy of a letter from Moody to Mills. Unfortunately, this photocopy, like most photocopies of documents in this collection is badly faded and very difficult to read. In most cases, the Archives staff had made a photocopy of the photocopy, adjusted to make the best possible reading. Both copies are kept together.
Nelson also collected documents by and about Mills. Most of these are in folders 1-1 and 1-9. They include some of sermons from his days as a Unitarian minister and, newspaper clippings and transcripts of newspaper clippings about his meetings, and his obituaries. Folder 1-1 also has a clipping of an 1889 sermon of T. L. Talmadge from the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Perhaps the most interesting item in folder 1-1 is a reprint of three articles by Mills that appeared in the magazine The Advance in June and July 1917 entitled, “Why I Return to the Church.” In it he describes in spiritual and historical terms how he came to abandon his evangelistic work because of his loss of faith and how he came to return tofaith. Also, Nelson’s research notes in folder 1-8 contain Nelson’s handwritten summaries of some of Mill’s sermons and a photocopy of a questionnaire ca. 1905 about his life and ministry that Mill’s filled out for the Los Angeles Public Library. Folder 1-3 has a booklet by Mary Russel Mills, B. Fay Mill’s wife, written for the Los Angeles Fellowship in 1914 on the fine art of living.
One item in the collection did not come from Nelson’s papers. It was included by the archivist because of its relationship to Mills. It is two pages of a multi-page letter missing its opening page or pages. It was probably written in 1897 or 1898 and records the situation at an unnamed station (possibly Umzumbe) of the American Board Zulu Mission in Natal, Africa. The letter is included because the last paragraph has the writer’s reaction to the news that Mills had abandoned the orthodox Chrisitan faith.
Folder 1-5 contains the correspondence between Nelson and the Billy Graham Center Archives about his papers.
Dates
- 1889-1916, 1961-1964, 1979
Conditions Governing Access
None
Conditions Governing Use
None
Biography
Full name: Daniel Wilhem Nelson
Birth: July 26, 1927 in Chicago, Illinois
Death: April 4, 1998 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Parents: Daga and John Nelson, immigrants from Sweden
Siblings: Bertil, Nelson, and David
Marital Status: Married to Myrtle W. Raedeke in 1952
Children: David, Bruce, Douglas, Roger, Martha
Ordination: Ordained as a Minister in the Covenant Church in 1953;
Ordained as a Minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1957
Education:
Chicago City Junior College (Wilson branch), Diploma, 1948
University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, M.A., 1951
North Park Theological Seminary, Diploma, 1955
Yale University Divinity School, B.D., 1959
Syracuse University, Doctorate in Social Science, 1964
Career:
Pastored Community Church, Boulder Junction, Wisconsin (1953-1957); Covenant Church New Haven, Connecticut (1957-?); a Presbyterian Church in Cortland, New York (?-1965); Southminster Presbyterian Church of Waukesha, Wisconsin, which he founded (1965-1991). After retirement from Southminster, he served as an interim pastor in for the Dundee Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska and the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois.
1994-1998 he served as the president of the Omaha Presbyterian Seminary Foundation in Omaha, Nebraska
He also served on the Waukesha Council of Churches, the Omaha Ministerial Association, the board of trustees of Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin; the board of trustees of the Presbyterian Historical Society, the board of trustees for the Milwaukee Theological Institute, and as moderator of the Milwaukee Presbytery.
Biography of B. Fay Mills
Benjamin Fay Mills, usually referred to as B. Fay Mills
Born: June 4, 1857 in Rahway, New Jersey to Rev. Thorton Anthony Mills and Anna Whittlesey Mills
Education:
Hamilton College, 1875-1876;
College of Wooster, 1876-1877;
Carleton College, 1877-1878;
Lake Forest University, B.A. 1878-1879;
Lake Forest University, M.A. 1881
Ordained: Congregational Council of Cannon Falls, Minnesota as minister-without-charge, February 18, 1878. Apparently was not regarded as a Congregational minister after 1898. The Presbytery of Albany had dropped his name from their rolls in 1898 and reentered his name on their rolls in 1915 at his request and approved unanimously by the members. Fellowshipped in the Unitarian Church from 1899 until his death.
Married Mary Russell October 31, 1879
Pastorates:
Congregational Church, Cannon Falls, Minnesota, 1877;
Central City, South Dakota 1879-1881;
Reformed Church, Greenwich, New York 1881-1883 (left because of illness);
Congregational Church, West Rutland, Vermont, 1884-1886;
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Albany, New York, 1894-1895
Congregational evangelist, 1886-1897
Meetings (Partial list):
1886: Middlebury, Vermont
1887: Montclair and Morristown, New Jersey ; Andover and Newburyport, Massachusetts; Brooklyn and New York, New York; and Wilmington, Delaware
1888: Charlestown, Worcester, Lowell, Fall River, and Chelsea, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island ; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1889: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Jersey City , New Jersey ; Springfield, Boston, and Holyoke, Massachusetts; Stamford, Connecticut; Ithaca, New York
1890: Boston, Massachusetts; New York and New Brunswick, New York; Youngstown, Ohio; Bath, Maine; Jersey City , New Jersey ; Decatur, Jacksonville and Springfield, Illinois; and Bridgeport, Connecticut
1891: Oak Park, Evanston, Rockford and Chicago, Illinois; St. Johnsbury, Vermont; Oberlin and Cleveland, Ohio; St. Joseph, Missouri; Plainfield, New Jersey; Syracuse, Utica, Hudson, and Watertown, New York; Terre Haute, Indiana; Beloit and Janesville, Wisconsin
1892: Cincinnati, Ohio; Covington, Kentucky; St. Paul, Minnesota; Omaha, Nebraska; Providence, Rhode Island
1893: St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Oakland, California; San Francisco , California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon; Louisville, Kentucky; Buffalo, New York; Nashville, Tennessee; and Montreal, Canada
1895: Columbus, Ohio; Brooklyn Tabernacle, New York; Iowa College, Iowa
Under the influence of George Herron and the Kingdom Movement, began to question several basic tenets of Evangelical faith.
Taught at the first and second summer Schools of the Kingdom, 1894-1895
Independent minister in Boston, 1897-1899, disavowed orthodox Christianity, preached a doctrine that incorporated various elements, including the Social Gospel, the brotherhood of man, and Christ as the savior of society rather than individuals.
Minister, First Unitarian Church, Oakland, California, 1899-1903;
Founder and first minister, Los Angeles Fellowship, 1904-1911;
Founder and Leader of the Chicago Fellowship, 1911-1914;
In 1915 experienced a reconversion to orthodox Christianity
Reentered on the ministerial roll of the Chicago presbytery, 1915
Began holding evangelistic in several cities, including Chicago, San Francisco, and New York. In New York City he preached at the Evangel Tent.
Died May 1, 1916
Author of Power on High (1890), A Message to Mothers (1892), Victory Through Surrender (1892), God’s World (1893), Twentieth Century Religion (1898), The Divine Adventure (1905)
Wrote numerous editorials for The Kingdom journal, 1894-1899
Extent
1 box : .25 linear feet
Language of Materials
English
Provenance
Accession(s): 1990-103, 1991-060, 1992-095
July 1, 2024
Bob Shuster
Separated Materials
The following books have been donated to the Evangelism and Missions Collection, Wheaton College Library:
Mills, B. Fay, God’s World, 1894
Mills, B. Fay, Victory Through Surrender, Plain Suggestions Concerning Entire Consecration, 1892
Stauffer, Henry, ed. The Great Awakening in Columbus, Ohio under the Labors of B. Fay Mills and his Associates, 1895
Ackowledgements
Much of the information for Daniel W. Nelson's biography was kindly supplied by the Waukesha County Historical Society and Museum.
- American Zulu Mission
- Apostasy -- Christianity.
- Evangelistic work -- United States.
- Mills, B. Fay (Benjamin Fay), 1857-1916.
- Missions -- South Africa.
- Nelson, Daniel W., Rev., 1927-?
- Sermons, American.
- Smith, Timothy Lawrence, 1924-1997.
- Social gospel.
- Torrey, R. A. (Reuben Archer), 1887-1970
- Unitarianism -- Sermons.
- Title
- Collection 741 Papers of Daniel W. Nelson
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Roman Script
Repository Details
Part of the Evangelism & Missions Archives Repository