William Eugene Blackstone

1841-1935. Friend of the Jews and writer on Christ's second coming. Born in Adams, New York, he was converted in boyhood. He served in the Civil War with the U.S. Christian Commission, then started a flourishing business in Oak Park, Illinois. Impressed by the lack of literature on Christ's return, he wrote Jesus Is Coming, a book still in print. In 1887 he helped start the Chicago Hebrew Mission, and in 1890 headed the first conference between Jews and Christians in Chicago. The next year he presented President Harrison with a memorial signed by 413 Christian and Jewish leaders urging an international conference on the Jewish situation. Israel celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of this memorial and dedicated a forest in his name.