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Billy Sunday
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==Early life== Billy Sunday was born near [[Ames, Iowa]]. His father, William Sunday, was the son of a [[German Americans]] named Sonntag, who had anglicized their name to "Sunday" when they settled in [[Chambersburg, Pennsylvania]].William Sunday was a [[bricklayer]] who worked his way to Iowa, where he married Mary Jane Corey, daughter of "Squire" Martin Corey, a local farmer, [[miller]], [[blacksmith]], and [[wheelwright]].<ref>McLoughlin, 1β2. Martin, 2.</ref> William Sunday enlisted in the [[23rd Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment|Iowa Twenty-Third Volunteer Infantry]] on August 14, 1862. He died four months later of pneumonia at an army camp in [[Patterson, Missouri]], five weeks after the birth of his youngest son, William Ashley. Mary Jane Sunday and her children moved in with her parents for a few years, and young Billy became close to his grandparents and especially his grandmother. Mary Jane Sunday later remarried, but her second husband soon deserted the family.<ref>McLoughlin, 1β3. Martin, 4β5.</ref> When Billy Sunday was ten years old, his impoverished mother sent him and an older brother to the Soldiers' Orphans Home in [[Glenwood, Iowa]], and later to the [[Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home]] in [[Davenport, Iowa]]. At the orphanage, Sunday gained orderly habits, a decent primary education, and the realization that he was a good athlete.<ref>Dorsett, 8β10, 13.</ref> By fourteen, Sunday was shifting for himself. In [[Nevada, Iowa]], he worked for Colonel [[John Scott (Iowa politician)|John Scott]], a former lieutenant governor, tending [[Shetland pony|Shetland ponies]] and doing other farm chores. The Scotts provided Sunday a good home and the opportunity to attend Nevada High School.<ref>The [[4-H]] baseball field in Nevada is named Billy Sunday Field.</ref> Although Sunday never received a high school diploma, by 1880 he was better educated than many of his contemporaries.<ref>"He had almost completed a high school education, which many young Americans of his generation lacked." Martin, 8. According to Lyle Dorsett, Sunday was "much better educated than the typical American." Dorsett, 14.</ref> In 1880, Sunday relocated to [[Marshalltown, Iowa]], where, because of his athleticism, he had been recruited for a fire brigade team. In Marshalltown, Sunday worked at odd jobs, competed in fire brigade tournaments, and played for the town baseball team.<ref name="irfphbeBSunday">{{cite book|last=Firstenberger|first=William Andrew|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XbW_Z8w2b3kC&q=marshalltown&pg=PA139|title=In rare form: a pictorial history of baseball evangelist Billy Sunday|publisher=University of Iowa Press|year=2005|isbn=0-87745-959-2|pages=12|access-date=2010-12-17|archive-date=2021-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131011154/https://books.google.com/books?id=XbW_Z8w2b3kC&q=marshalltown&pg=PA139|url-status=live}}</ref>
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