Fire in the Tent: The 1908 Cleveland Revival

David G. Roebuck

Presented as the Third Annual Azusa Lecture at North Cleveland Church of God on October 28, 2008, in conjunction with the presentation of the Spirit of Azusa Award to the Reverend T. L. Lowery. The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center sponsors the Azusa Lecture and Spirit of Azusa Award.

Introduction

Revival! In his Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America, Michael McClymond noted the frequency of revival in the United States. He wrote, “Religious revivals are as American as baseball, blues music, and the stars and stripes. They are as it were imbedded in the continental soil, whether the stony ground of New England, the red clay of Georgia, the silt of the Mississippi, Ohio, or Missouri river towns, the sand of the southwestern deserts, or the paved-over earth of New York City, …, Chicago, Dallas and, Lost Angeles.”[1] Certainly, McClymond could just as well have included the rocky soil of Cleveland, Tennessee, in his description, as evidenced by the frequent announcements of revivals in the Cleveland Daily Banner.

While all of us are familiar with a series of services identified as revivals, the word “revival” likely evokes a variety of images in our minds. Some might immediately think of prominent historical examples such as America’s first great awakening or the Cane Ridge revival in 1801. Many of us recount recent revivals of notoriety at places such as the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, the Brownsville Assembly of God, or the Ignited Church in Lakeland, Florida. For members of North Cleveland Church of God “revival” means “Fresh Fire” conducted in our large comfortable, air-conditioned, carpeted sanctuary, with a variety of outstanding preachers. Among the memories for Dr. T. L. Lowery, who we are honoring with the Spirit of Azusa Award, the term “revival” likely evokes memories of warm summer evenings, an enormous 10,000-seat tent, the ground covered with wood shavings and sawdust, and crowded with hearts expecting the miraculous. For most of us, revivals include enthusiastic singing, anointed and animated preaching, long altar services, and life-changing spiritual experiences.

For those of us in Cleveland, Tennessee, our history includes an extraordinary revival worthy of our commemorating tonight. This revival occurred a century ago, and in his book, The Cradle of Pentecost, Charles W. Conn identified it as “The Great Revival.” Perhaps a letter that Ella Clyde Cotton penned to a religious paper called The Bridegroom’s Messenger inspired him. Sister Cotton wrote: “We can’t begin to describe the great revival that is sweeping the town and country here. Can only say it is wonderful. Crowds are coming from far and near, and the large tent is filled to overflowing and altar so crowed with seekers we can hardly find room to work.”[2]

Tonight I want to do more than Ella Clyde Cotton dared and take the time to describe that revival for us. The church entered into a spirit of revival in January 1908 that culminated with a ten-week tent meeting that lasted from August 11 until October 14. When the meeting closed there had been 105 conversions, 163 baptized with the Spirit, and 106 added to the church. It had been an extraordinary event for the town, the pastor, the local church, and all those seeking the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Cleveland, Tennessee

The story of The Great Revival begins with the town of Cleveland, Tennessee. In 1908, Cleveland was 81 years old with about 4,000 residents. The whole of Bradley County was about 16,000 people. Cleveland’s economy included a woolen mill and a marble works along with stove and chair manufacturing. Christopher Hardwick had begun a backyard business of building stoves in 1870, and that industry continues to play a significant role our economy today.[3]

A. J. Tomlinson

The primary preacher of The Great Revival was Pastor A. J. Tomlinson who had relocated to Cleveland four years earlier. He was originally from Indiana, but had spent five years as a missionary evangelist in the community of Culberson, North Carolina. There Tomlinson established a school and an orphanage, and he published two periodicals attempting to raise funds for his missionary work. In 1903, he joined the Holiness Church at Camp Creek in the home of W. F. Bryant, and they ordained Tomlinson as their pastor.

When Tomlinson arrived in Cleveland in December 1904 there were good schools for his children, the Norfolk and Western Railway ran through town making travel easier, and he had already experienced successful ministry in the Bradley and McMinn County communities of Union Grove, Drygo, and Luskville. At the time of his move, Tomlinson was likely serving as pastor of four Holiness Church congregations including the Camp Creek, North Carolina, church.

The Cleveland Holiness Church

Soon after he arrived in Cleveland, Tomlinson began to work toward establishing a church here. Those church planting efforts included lengthy tent meetings in the spring and fall. But, resources were meager, and at that time they did not even have seats for the tent.

The year 1906 brought continued church planting efforts in Cleveland, preaching tent meetings in numerous other towns, and establishing several churches. When the Cleveland mission lost the building they were renting, the small group was without a place of worship until the tent was retuned for services in October and November. Finally, on October 10, 1906, the Holiness Church was set in order in Cleveland. With the coming of November, the weather was too cold to worship in the tent so the young congregation moved their meetings into private homes.

The year 1907 witnessed important developments for Pastor Tomlinson and the Cleveland congregation. In January, the Holiness Churches held their second annual assembly and adopted the name Church of God. Ministry began in the south of Cleveland with the pitching of the tent there on July 3. Then on September 29, the congregation dedicated a church building where North Cleveland Church of God’s Bryant Fellowship Hall stands today.

The congregation also held revival services the first week in their new building. Pastor Tomlinson recorded in his journal on the Saturday following the dedication: “Have been running meetings every day and night. People getting saved from sins or sanctified in nearly every service. The house was crowded tonight. Preached three sermons. Nine more professions. Several renewed, some sanctified. Sixteen professions this week.”[4]

The Baptism of the Holy Ghost

Absent from Tomlinson’s account of the revival in the newly dedicated building was any reference to the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. Perhaps the most important change during 1907 was the transformation in Pastor Tomlinson’s understanding of this doctrine and experience. This change was the primary impetus for the 1908 revival.

Many of us know the significance of the 1896 Shearer Schoolhouse revival in the community of Camp Creek, North Carolina. There four evangelists preached the doctrine of sanctification as a second blessing. Sometime following that revival, about 130 people were baptized with the Holy Spirit and many experienced divine healing. That outpouring was before the better-known revival at Azusa Street and one of many sporadic outpourings signaling that God was doing a new thing in the last days. According to Charles W. Conn in Like a Mighty Army, although the lives of the Camp Creek believers had been transformed, “It would be somewhat later that even those baptized would understand the doctrine, person, and nature of the Holy Spirit.”[5]

On the last night of the second General Assembly in January 1907, Pastor Tomlinson preached a sermon entitled “The Baptism with the Holy Ghost and Fire.” The Assembly minutes record: “The speaker dwelt on the subject very extensively and in power. At the close of his discourse, he made an altar call and the altar was quickly filled with earnest seekers for this Baptism. Some tarried until late.”[6]

Although we do not know what Tomlinson preached about the Holy Spirit that night, he later recorded in his book, The Last Great Conflict,

In January, 1907, I became more fully awakened on the subject of receiving the Holy Ghost as He was poured out on the day of Pentecost. That whole year I ceased not to preach that it was our privilege to receive the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues as they did on the day of Pentecost. I did not have the experience, so I was almost always among the seekers at the altar. . . . By the close of the year I was so hungry for the Holy Ghost that I scarcely cared for food, friendship or anything else. I wanted the one thing—the Baptism with the Holy Ghost.[7]

Toward the end of 1907, Pastor Tomlinson corresponded with G. B. Cashwell from Dunn, North Carolina. Having heard about the Azusa Street outpouring, Cashwell had traveled to Los Angeles and experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. He then preached the Pentecostal message throughout the southeastern United States. Tomlinson learned of Cashwell’s experience and invited him to Cleveland to preach at the third General Assembly in January 1908. For the first time the Assembly met at the Cleveland church, and Cashwell preached on Saturday, January 11. Although the business portion of the Assembly ended on Saturday, the printed program included worship services on Sunday, and Cashwell preached again on Sunday morning.

While Cashwell was preaching, Tomlinson fell to the floor under the power of the Spirit. According to Tomlinson, “My mind was clear, but a peculiar power so enveloped and thrilled my whole being that I concluded to yield myself up to God and await results. . . . As I lay there great joy flooded my soul. The happiest moments I had ever known up to that time. I never knew what real joy was before.… Oh, such floods and billows of glory ran through my whole being for several minutes!”[8]

Lying on the floor that morning, Tomlinson experienced a vision in which he spoke in tongues as he traveled the world. Like many early Pentecostals, he believed that speaking in tongues was a miraculous speaking of unlearned human languages. It was not until later that Pentecostals came to understand tongues as primarily unknown languages. For Tomlinson such an experience revealed the urgency of reaching the world in the last days. Pentecostal fire was for a real purpose—empowering and enabling the church to win the world for Jesus Christ. He wrote, “This was really the baptism of the Holy Ghost as they received Him on the day of Pentecost, for they all spake with tongues. With all I have written it is not yet told, but judging from the countries I visited I spoke in ten different languages.”[9]

A. J. Tomlinson’s life and ministry along with the ministry of the Cleveland Church of God were radically changed. But, reaching the world must first begin at home. As part of his vision that morning, Tomlinson returned to Cleveland from his world-wide journey. His journal records, “Then I came back to Cleveland, and I seemed to be asked if I was willing to testify or speak on the public square of the city. Without any effort my spirit seemed to give consent.”[10]

Cashwell’s message brought revival to the Cleveland congregation, and services continued during the following week. On Monday, January 20, Tomlinson wrote, “We have been continuing the meetings every since I wrote last. Saturday night the house was full. Last night it was packed and many had to leave because they could not get in.”[11]

It is entirely appropriate to state that the Cleveland church and her pastor were the core of the Church of God movement at that time. When spring came, the Church of God put two tents into service for preaching the gospel. The large one spent most of the summer in Chattanooga and a smaller one served Madisonville and Reb Knobs, Tennessee. Pastor Tomlinson spent the spring and summer of 1908 traveling back and forth between the Cleveland church and the two tents. M. S. Lemons and H. L. Trim assisted with the larger tent, and W. F. Bryant took charge of the smaller tent. Vandals cut down the small tent one night in Red Knobs, and the evangelists moved the large tent in Chattanooga on one occasion because of complaints about the noise of the services. The Chattanooga ministry resulted in the organization of what is now the East Chattanooga Church of God on August 3 with an extraordinary presence of the Holy Spirit.[12]

The large tent was central to the 1908 revival. Few communities in that day had facilities sufficient to plant a church or to hold a revival, so it was natural for Tomlinson to purchase a tent several years earlier. He recorded in his journal on July 5, 1904, that he had gone to Dalton, Georgia, to purchase a gospel tent. The tent cost $97 plus an additional $4 to get it home.[13]

Of course, revivals have occurred in many different types of settings from John Wesley and George Whitefield’s outdoor field preaching, to Billy Graham’s use of sports stadiums. At one time, tents were especially popular accommodations for revivals. The earliest known use of a tent for worship was in Poplar Hill, Tennessee, in 1819, and Charles Finny used tents for his revivals as early as 1835. Tents were a practical and portable way to provide inexpensive shelter for revival services. But, they had other value as well. Tomlinson wrote in his journal on June 22, “Have been in a tent meeting in Chattanooga….Closed there last night after a siege of 7 weeks.… The gospel was given out with power…. People would stay for hours and sit on the rough boards with no backs, when they could hardly be kept an hour on nice comfortable pews in the churches.”[14]

While many revivals have been conducted in local church sanctuaries, Louis Nelson noted when writing about the architecture of revivals that “Without the comportment demanded of refined church spaces, the canvas tent,…reinforced a sense of spontaneity, heartfelt religion, and immediacy with God.”[15] Tents encourage worshippers to open themselves up to the work of God in ways they might not ordinarily do. Initially, it was easier to attend a meeting held by a preacher outside one’s own tradition if the setting of that meeting was not a church building. Additionally, the uniqueness of the surroundings of a tent service held one’s attention in ways that the familiarly of a church building did not. Finally, the excitement of the tent meeting allowed worshippers to expect and be open to the new and the unusual.[16]

In the 1908 Cleveland revival, the tent allowed for those not associated with the Church of God, holiness, or the baptism with the Holy Spirit to come to a neutral space and see for themselves what was happening—to cross over into the unfamiliar and to be open to what God was doing. This was undoubtedly the case for F. J. Lee who crossed from the Baptist tradition to one teaching divine healing, sanctification, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The Great Revival

With this context in mind, let us turn our attention to the revival that occurred here in Cleveland one hundred years ago. Five main sources recount the event. The most complete source is A. J. Tomlinson’s journal from which I will quote extensively. Almost every night, Tomlinson went home and wrote in his journal about the day’s events. For those who are interested, much of Tomlinson’s journal is now in the manuscripts department of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The Dixon Pentecostal Research Center holds two typescripts of the journal. Charles W. Conn prepared one while conducting research for Like a Mighty Army and Lillie Duggar, Tomlinson’s long-time assistant, prepared another. We also have a microfilm of the original. A second source was an almost daily record kept by the local church. Regrettably that record is now lost. Thankfully, Homer Tomlinson quoted extensively from it when he published his father’s journal in 1949. Other sources include the letter from Ella Clyde Cotton to The Bridegroom’s Messenger, one article in the local newspaper, and a brief biography of F. J. Lee published in a collection of his sermons.

Tomlinson’s account of the meeting begins on Tuesday, August 4, when he wrote, “Returned home this evening from Chattanooga to commence tent meeting here.”[17]

Although the tent was not yet set up, Pastor Tomlinson immediately began revival services in the church house on Wednesday, August 5. He recorded the following Sunday: “We had an overflow meeting tonight. The altar was filled and the Lord swept down and gave three the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Fear, consternation and amazement fell upon the congregation.”[18] The next day the tent was set up not far from here near a place called Morelocks Crossing, named for the Morelock family who owned a farm in that area. The location was about eight blocks from the center of town on what is now Central Avenue between the railroad tracks and Short Street. The site was a showground set aside for community events including the occasional Barnum and Bailey or other circus troop that came to town. A smaller lot on the other side of the street was often the home of carnivals, minstrel shows, and other traveling entertainment.[19]

Pattern of Activity

Meetings in the tent began on Tuesday, August 11. Most days included morning-prayer meetings in the church house or private homes, usually the Tomlinson house on Gaut Street, with afternoon and evening services conducted in the tent. Our sources only describe one service in detail, but we read that the services included individual and concert prayers, singing, testimonies, an offering, announcements, prayer for special needs, a discourse, a sermon, and an altar call followed by altar services that lasted well into the night or early morning. Many services included speaking in tongues, and there were reports of prophesying, visions, and various physical manifestations. On some occasions, people were anointed with oil for healing.

Pastor Tomlinson did most of the preaching, but our sources name others as either preaching or taking some other responsibility in the services. Preachers included Ella Clyde Cotton, M. S. Lemons, R. G. Spurling, W. M. Tallent, and others. We only have one sermon topic recorded when on October 3 Tomlinson wrote that he “preached on the near and soon coming of our Lord.”

Sometimes Sundays included Sunday school and morning worship at the tent. On several occasions members were taken into the church, and there was at least one baptism service at an unidentified location. Rain or the necessity of repairing the tent sometimes led to cancelling the afternoon service. More than once the afternoon service continued into the evening so that worship was going on almost all day long at the tent.

The Numbers

Of course, while all of us hope that lives are changed and the kingdom is advanced, we tend to measure the success of our revival meetings by numbers—the number of people who attend and the number of people who testify of spiritual experiences. The numbers reported for the 1908 revival are remarkable.

Before I go any further, let me confess that I have wondered whether or not we can believe the numbers or if perhaps they were exaggerated? After carefully reading the sources, including the local newspaper article, I have concluded that the numbers are generally reliable. Tomlinson was a careful chronicler, and he clearly distinguished between specific numbers and estimates.

Tomlinson tended to give specific numbers when referring to spiritual experiences. Some examples: On the very first night, three were saved and two baptized with the Holy Spirit. On the second night, two more were baptized with the Holy Spirit. On the third night, four were saved and one baptized with the Holy Spirit. On August 17, three received the Holy Ghost in the morning-prayer meeting at Tomlinson’s home. On August 23, there were 10 professions and one baptized with the Holy Ghost. Tomlinson recorded these types of results each day in his journal.

Tomlinson took care to note when he was reporting estimated numbers. Sometimes he wrote “about” or that others told him. On the first night, he recorded “about 500 people.” On the night following F. J. Lee’s experience, Tomlinson wrote, “I preached at night, I suppose to 1,000 people.” But, the next day he added, “I was told I preached to 5,000 last night, but tonight it was much more. We were crammed in so tight we could scarcely work in the altar.”

August 15: “about 1,200 people.”

August 16: “they told me they thought there were 1,500 or more people.”

August 23: “About 2,000 people in and around the tent.”

September 2: “Large crowd.”

September 12: “Big crowd at night.”

September 27: “Powerful meetings and big crowds. People here from 20 miles in the country.”

October 1: “Weather cold, but the people about fill the tent every night.”

These sound like amazing numbers for a town the size of Cleveland. Why were people coming to the revival? Of course, they did not have the distractions of television and the numerous community activities we have today. A tent meeting was a significant event for any town. Some came because it was a community-wide social event. Some came to see what they expected would be a spectacle. Some came to oppose the theology and practice. And, some came because there were something going on that spoke to their spirits.

Whatever their reasons, come they did as the Cleveland Journal and Banner reported on September 17:

Big Holiness Meeting

No Abatement in Interest, Enthusiasm or Attendance in

Meetings in This City

Although the meetings conducted by the Holiness Church of this city have been in progress for something over a month, the crowds in attendance are as large as ever, the interest in the cause is still very great, and the religious fervor of the members and converts is at white heat. The Holiness people have practically captured all east and northeast Cleveland, and their strength is materially increasing.[20]

Challenges

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the revival, however. One of the issues was the noisy services that sometimes lasted until after 2:00 a.m. Homer Tomlinson gives us the insight that the mayor lived near the tent. A. J. Tomlinson wrote:

August 16: “Some opposition. I am threatened but not fearful.”

August 19: “I am told a warrant is taken for my arrest, but I hardly think so.”

August 20: “The mayor of the city served a paper on me this morning asking me to close the meeting at about 10:00 or be arrested. We prayed earnestly and I told the officer about the matter, and told him I could not go away and leave seekers in the altar, and that I would not be compelled to close at any certain time. Tonight the officer came and plainly threw open the privilege for us to hold the meetings as long as we want to and we should have their protection. God gave great victory. Over 60 piled into the altar.”

Other challenges related to the theology of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. Tomlinson recorded in his journal:

August 18: “I preached by request of some business men in the city from 1 Cor. 14:27-33. God sure gave me liberty, and honored the message.” (You may recall that 1 Corinthians 14 is where Paul gives regulations regarding the gifts of the Spirit. This event was akin to the Pharisees asking questions to Jesus in hopes of tripping him up.)

August 25: “I received a challenge from a minister in town to debate the question of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I don’t know what I will do about it yet.”

September 17: “One of the city preachers lectured in the courthouse tonight against the doctrine I am preaching at the tent, but I had the crowd, or at lest the tent was full as usual.”

Manifestations

When those attending the meeting arrived, they often witnessed a lively scene. As I read the accounts of the services, I am reminded of testimonies from the 1801 Cane Ridge revival in Kentucky and other parts of the Second Great Awakening where people reportedly fell, experienced trances, shouted, danced, and jerked. Peter Cartwright wrote of the 1801 revival, “The power of God was wonderfully displayed; scores of sinners fell under the preaching, like men slain in mighty battle; Christians shouted aloud for joy.”[21] History is full of accounts of bodily manifestations during intense spiritual experiences.

Let me recount here three accounts from the 1908 revival: On Thursday, September 10, Tomlinson wrote:

A wonderful meeting at night. No preaching. A special time of weeping fell on some of the workers during the testimony services and I called for a special concert, intercessory prayer, which lasted for several minutes. A little later at an opportune time I stepped upon the altar, and as I did so I seemed to see a kind of blue vapor, or mist, settle down on the congregation, and people turned pale, and as I made the altar call, 75 or 100 piled in very quickly. Numbers fell prostrate under the power, but only four succeeded in getting the full baptism of the Holy Ghost, and 7 professions. But the fire is spreading more and more in every quarter of the city, and for miles in the country. God help me to keep low and humble right down in the dust.

September 12: “I was told tonight that above the tent last night was seen by more than one a streak of fire, or light, and that the people are stirred up about the meeting for fifteen and twenty miles in every direction. Glory. It is the Lord’s work and indeed wonderful.”

September 18: “While I was preaching tonight a lady fell under the power in the congregation and received the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Numbers of strong men and women came to the altar when I gave the invitation. Quite a number were down under the power speaking in tongues, praising God and greatly shaking, etc., etc.”

F. J. Lee

Many Cleveland residents dismissed these experiences, but a quick dismissal became much more difficult when F. J. Lee stepped into the revival tent. Flavius Josephus Lee’s family had moved to Cleveland when he was fifteen. He was saved and joined the Baptist Church, where according to his wife, Eva, he was “a faithful member serving as Bible teacher and chorister.” Baptist historian John Conner reports that the Berry Street Baptist Church elected nineteen-year-old Lee as church clerk, and he held that office for twelve years. Lee worked with his father as a carpenter and with the Hardwick Stove Company as a pattern maker.

Lee’s spiritual experiences in 1908 radically transformed his life. We don’t know what attracted Lee to the revival, but, something stirred his spirit. He did not immediately accept the message or deny it. Rather he went home and studied the Scriptures. According to his biography, “After finding it in the Word of God, he went to the kitchen and began to pray. God wonderfully sanctified him.” When Lee returned to the revival on Friday, August 28, the rear benches proved not to be safe from the power of the Spirit. We are told, “the power of God struck him and he was carried to the altar and soon received the Holy Ghost.” Disturbed and frightened relatives called for a doctor who pronounced Lee’s symptoms “a good case of religion.” [22]

Tomlinson wrote that night that Lee “stood and gave a message in tongues for some time and continued under the power for hours. The most wonderful meeting yet. Numbers were stretched out under the power on the shavings. Conversations were carried on in tongues by 2 or 4 girls for hours, and they sang the most heavenly music I have ever heard. To describe the meeting would be impossible. It is now 2:45 at night, and I came away and left one under the power still. Oh, it is indeed wonderful what God is doing!”

From that night forward, Lee felt the call of God on his life. He served as pastor of the Cleveland church, as state overseer of Tennessee and Florida, and as one of the first two appointed to the Elders Council. In 1922, Lee became superintendent of the Bible Training School, now Lee University. Often called to serve in difficult circumstances, when the Church of God removed A.J. Tomlinson as general overseer, the church turned to Lee to serve in that office.

Conclusion

Exhaustion and dropping temperatures finally brought the tent meeting to a close. Tomlinson recorded on Wednesday, October 14, “Held meetings at tent. Closed out tonight after a 10 weeks successful battle.”

In conversations with Center for Spiritual Renewal Director Billy Wilson, he has suggested that true revivals typically include the transformation of culture, a higher awareness of the Word of God, some form of opposition, manifestations of the miraculous, and evangelism. These were all evident in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1908.

While G. B. Cashwell was ministering in Cleveland in January of 1908, he sent a report of his services to The Bridegroom’s Messenger. Cashwell concluded his account by saying, “We are expecting great things here if everybody will stay out of the way of the Holy Ghost.”[23] Truly, 1908 became a year of great revival. Tonight, I rejoice in what God did then, and I join with the Center for Spiritual Renewal, Dr. T. L. Lowery, and others in seeking a fresh awakening in Cleveland, in our nation, and around the world.

[1] Michael McClymond, ed., Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007), xvii.

[2] Clyde Cotton, “Great Pentecostal Revival in Cleveland, Tenn.,” The Bridegrooms Messenger, September 15, 1908, 1.

[3] Teresa Biddle-Douglass, “Hardwick Stove Company,” Tennessee Encyclopedia, https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/hardwick-stove-company/.

[4] A. J. Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” October 5, 1907. Tomlinson’s original diary titled “Journal of Happenings” is in the manuscript collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Homer Tomlinson published an edited edition, Diary of A. J. Tomlinson, Three Volumes (New York: The Church of God World Headquarters, 1949-1953). Since the presentation of this lecture, White Wing Publishing House published the journal as Diary of A. J. Tomlinson, 1901-1924 (Cleveland, Tenn.” White Wing Publishing House, 2012).

[5] Charles W. Conn, Like a Mighty Army: A History of the Church of God 1886-1996 (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2008), 31.

[6] Church of God, “Minutes of the Church Assembly,” 1907. See https://pentecostalarchives.org/digitalPublications/USA/Church%20of%20God%20(Cleveland%20TN)/Church%20of%20God%20General%20Assembly%20Minutes/Unregistered/1907/Dixon/1907_Handwritten.pdf. The original handwritten minutes are located at the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center, Cleveland, Tennessee.

[7] A. J. Tomlinson, The Last Great Conflict (Cleveland, TN: The Press of Walter E. Rodgers, 1913), 210.

[8] Tomlinson, The Last Great Conflict, 211-12. For an examination of the connection to the Azusa Street Revival through Cashwell see David G. Roebuck, “From Azusa to Cleveland: The Amazing Journey of G.B. Cashwell and the Spread of Pentecostalism,” in The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, eds. Harold D. Hunter and Cecil M. Robeck Jr. (Cleveland, TN: Pathway Press, 2006), 111-25.

[9] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” January 13, 1908.

[10] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” January 13, 1908.

[11] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” January 20, 1908.

[12] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” May 18-August 4, 1908.

[13] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” July 5, 1904.

[14] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” June 22, 1908.

[15] Louis Nelson, “Architecture and Revivals” in McClymond, Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America, 28-32.

[16] Kenneth O. Brown, “Camp Meetings and Tents,” in McClymond, Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America, 75-81.

[17] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” August 4, 1908.

[18] Tomlinson, “Journal of Happenings,” August 9, 1908.

[19] Homer Tomlinson, ed., Diary of A.J. Tomlinson, Vol. 1, 37.

[20] “Big Holiness Meeting,” The Journal and Banner, September 17, 1908, 3.

[21] Quoted at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/.

[22] Quotations about Lee from Mrs. F. J. Lee, comp., “Life Sketch of F. J. Lee (Cleveland, TN: The Church of God Publishing House, n.d.), [1-3].

[23] G. B. Cashwell, “Report of Work,” The Bridegroom’s Messenger, January 15, 1908, 2.