Weekly Sabbath School: The Farm Press as a Pulpit for “Uncle Henry” Wallace's Progressive Moral Reform and Instruction

Abstract

Henry Wallace founded Wallace's Farmer in 1895 and transformed farm journalism. Much has been written about Wallace, his son Henry C., and his grandson Henry A., Vice President under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but little has been said about his “best work” of journalism, “Our Weekly Sabbath School Lesson.” A study of lessons from 1899 to 1915 revealed that the goal of Wallace's progressive journalism was to reform people from inside out. Five common themes—moral character, corruption and moral reform, family roles and responsibilities, the nobility of farming, and the unity of man—were identified.