Mordecai Ham
Encyclopedia
Mordecai Fowler Ham, Jr. (April 2, 1877–November 1, 1961), was an American Independent
Independent Baptist
Independent Baptist churches are Christian churches generally holding to conservative Baptist beliefs. They are characterized by being independent from the authority of denominations or similar bodies. Members of such churches comprised three percent of the United States adult population according...

 Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 evangelist
Evangelism
Evangelism refers to the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold those beliefs. The term is often used in reference to Christianity....

 and temperance movement
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...

 leader. He entered the ministry in 1901 and in 1936 began a radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

 broadcast reaching into seven southern states. Early in his ministry, he was ordained at Burton Memorial Baptist Church in Bowling Green
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green is the third-most populous city in the state of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, with a population of 58,067 as of the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Warren County and the principal city of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area with an estimated 2009...

, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

.

The son of Tobias Ham and the former Ollie McElroy, Ham was born on a farm in Allen County
Allen County, Kentucky
Allen County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2010, the population is 19,956. Its county seat is Scottsville, Kentucky. The county is named for Colonel John Allen, who was killed at the Battle of Frenchtown, Michigan during the War of 1812. Allen County is a prohibition or...

 near Scottsville
Scottsville, Kentucky
Scottsville is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 4,327 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Scottsville is located at ....

 in southern Kentucky, north of the Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 state line. Descended from eight generations of Baptist preachers, his namesake grandfather was Mordecai F. Ham, Sr. He once stated that "From the time I was eight years old, I never thought of myself as anything but a Christian. At nine, I had definite convictions that the Lord wanted me to preach...." Ham studied at Ogden College in Bowling Green and relocated to Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, where he engaged in business from 1896-1900. There, he married the former Bessie Simmons in July 1900. In December 1900, he closed the business to devote full-time to the ministry.

One target of Ham's sermons was alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....

 abuse, particularly before the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...

. He believed that problems involving liquor could best be resolved by conversion to Christianity and the placement of new believers in churches which stress abstinence of alcoholic beverages. In 1928, though many in his congregation were Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

, Ham supported Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

 for the American presidency: "If you vote for Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...

, you're voting against Christ, and you will all be damned". Smith was the Roman Catholic and Democratic governor of New York
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...

 who lost the election to Hoover.

In November 1934, Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...

 was converted under Mordecai Ham's preaching in a revival in Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...

, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. Through Ham's influence with W.B. Riley in Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, Graham was launched onto a national and international platform of influence and prestige among evangelical ranks. Ham had held his greatest number of meetings in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Graham joined a Texas church, First Baptist of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, then the largest Southern Baptist congregation in the nation and pastored by W.A. Criswell.

Family and ministry

Bessie Ham died five years after their marriage. In 1907, at the age of thirty, Ham married Annie Laurie Smith, who was then only fifteen. This marriage lasted more than fifty years. They had three daughters: Martha Elizabeth (born September 16, 1912), Dorothy (born December 16, 1915), and Annie Laurie (born December 11, 1924).

In January 1901, Ham began the study of twenty-seven books to prepare for the ministry, a process that involved reading, praying, meditation, and writing. From 1901-1941, Ham led 289 meetings in 22 states, which produced 303,387 professions of faith in Christ. He subsequently conducted a weekly radio sermon over a network of stations originating in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

, Kentucky. He published many of these messages for distribution to listeners, having depended on his most loyal audience members for financial support. He also held rallies and short meetings in various cities in his radio coverage area.

Targeting Texas

Ham held more than seventy-five meetings in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, including Beaumont
Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 118,296 at the 2010 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the...

, Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...

, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

, Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

, Bay City
Bay City, Texas
Bay City is a city in Matagorda County, Texas, United States. The population was 18,667 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Matagorda County. The current mayor is Mark Bricker.-Geography:Bay City is located at...

, Port Arthur
Port Arthur, Texas
-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 57,755 people, 21,839 households, and 14,675 families residing in the city. The population density was 696.5 people per square mile . There were 24,713 housing units at an average density of 298.0 per square mile...

, Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

, Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

, and Longview
Longview, Texas
Longview is a city in Gregg and Harrison Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 80,455. Most of the city is located in Gregg County, of which it is the county seat; only a small part extends into the western part of neighboring Harrison County. It is...

.

Ham held his first Texas meeting in 1903 in the community of Hico
Hico, Texas
Hico is a small city located in Hamilton County in Central Texas. The population was 1,341 at the 2000 census. The town motto is "Where Everybody Is Somebody!" The county seat is Hamilton some twenty miles to the south on United States Highway 281....

, with 150 decisions for Christ. Similarly, there were 160 decisions thereafter in Garland
Garland, Texas
-Climate:* The average warmest month is July.* The highest recorded temperature was in 2000.* On average, the coolest month is January.* The lowest recorded temperature was in 1989.* The maximum average precipitation occurs in May....

 east of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

. J.B. Gambrell, editor of The Baptist Standard newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

, described Ham's Garland meeting:

"Brother Ham is a young man and has been preaching but a short time. He has distinct elements of power. In the first place he preaches certainties and not doubts. An evangelist of doubt is a sorry traveler in these low grounds. He believes the great truths of the Bible up to the hilt, and he preaches with directness and great aggressiveness."

Evangelizing along the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

, Ham held meetings at the First Baptist Church of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...

, which brought thirty converts in 1903. He returned to New Orleans in 1908 for a meeting jointly sponsored by Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists, and three thousand responded.

In Fort Worth, Ham held a meeting with J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
John Franklyn Norris was a flamboyant Baptist preacher, one of the most controversial figures in the history of fundamentalism.-Biography:...

, another conservative evangelist known for his strict biblical interpretation. The two developed a personal and professional relationship which was sometimes strained. Norris in most instances tried to dominate his friends and associates to his advantage and benefit.

Ham used several unique strategies for reaching people, often confronting individuals face-to-face. He employed "gospel cars" in several cities to draw attention to his revivals. While in Houston, the gospel car approached an individual on the edge of a bayou
Bayou
A bayou is an American term for a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river , or to a marshy lake or wetland. The name "bayou" can also refer to creeks that see level changes due to tides and hold brackish water which...

 who was contemplating suicide. The man was converted to Christianity as a result. If street cars were unavailable, Ham used horses and wagons. In one of the meetings in Houston, the parade assembled included more than two thousand vehicles, including a hearse
Hearse
A hearse is a funerary vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.-History:...

.

In 1911, the meetings in the border city of Laredo
Laredo, Texas
Laredo is the county seat of Webb County, Texas, United States, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande in South Texas, across from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. According to the 2010 census, the city population was 236,091 making it the 3rd largest on the United States-Mexican border,...

, a traditionally Roman Catholic area, and in Tyler
Tyler, Texas
Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...

, the largest city of East Texas, netted three hundred decisions each.

In 1915, there were 1,200 decisions in San Angelo
San Angelo, Texas
San Angelo is a city in the state of Texas. Located in West Central Texas it is the county seat of Tom Green County. As of 2010 according to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total population of 93,200...

 in Tom Green County in west Texas. E.J. Lyon, pastor of the First Baptist Church of San Angelo encouraged other Baptist pastors to assist Ham in his crusades:

". . . Baptists in the states will make no mistake in working with [Ham], as they usually get more members than any other churches in the meetings. Then they get more than they could get in a church meeting of their own. Yet again, the general tone of Christian living is lifed in the whole religious life of the city, which makes it easier for the new members to be strengthened in Christian service."

In 1915, there were 1,100 decisions in Denison
Denison, Texas
Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, United States. The population was 22,773 at the 2000 census; it is estimated to have grown to 24,127 in 2009. Denison is one of two principal cities in the Sherman-Denison Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

, the birthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...

. That same year, there were 850 conversions in Temple
Temple, Texas
Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. Located near the county seat of Belton, Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas. Located off Interstate 35, Temple is 65 miles north of Austin and 34 miles south of Waco. In the 2010 Census, Temple's population was 66,102, an...

 in Central Texas. In 1937, Ham returned to Houston, where there were seven thousand decisions. His last Texas meeting was in 1940 in Fort Worth, where 3,900 professed Christ. The 61,260 decisions in Texas were the largest number in a single state that Ham would achieve. His second greatest number was 55,763 in Tennessee. Other strong showings were in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 and Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. In his later meetings in Texas, Ham concentrated on the larger cities of the Gulf Coast and Central Texas, where he had witnessed the greatest numerical success.

Ham's associates

William J. Ramsey, Ham's long-time music director, joined the evangelist as a result of the 1912 crusade in Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....

, Texas. Another on the team was Rawley Tredway (1900–1980) of Mansfield
Mansfield, Louisiana
Mansfield is a city in and the parish seat of DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 5,001 at the 2010 census. Mansfield is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

, the seat of De Soto Parish
De Soto Parish, Louisiana
-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 26,656 people, 9,691 households, and 6,967 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile . There were 11,204 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile...

 in northwestern Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

.

Works

  • The Second Coming of Christ and Revelation
  • Believing a Lie
  • Light on the Dance
  • The Jews
  • The Sabbath Question


Ham received an honorary degree from Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University is a private, for-profit, non-denominational Protestant university in Greenville, South Carolina.The university was founded in 1927 by Bob Jones, Sr. , an evangelist and contemporary of Billy Sunday...

 in Greenville
Greenville, South Carolina
-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...

, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

.

External links

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