Guide to the J.H. Zivley Papers

J.H. Zivley, a Presbyterian minister and evangelist, was born in 1824 in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He studied at Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio for one year before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York, from which he graduated in 1847. He was licensed by the Fourth Presbytery of New York, New School, in 1847, and ordained by the North Alabama Presbytery, New School, in 1848. Between 1847 and 1901, he worked as a stated supply, pastor, and evangelist primarily in Texas, but also at churches in Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, and Colorado. From 1853 to 1879 he resided in Austin, Texas, where he engaged in home mission work, organizing and building churches in San Marcos, Seguin, Lockhart, and Manor, Texas, while also preaching at several churches in Travis County. He served as moderator of the Synod of Kentucky, New School, in 1848. He was married in 1850 to Mary Frances Wallace Sutton. The couple had six surviving children. During the Civil War, Zivley served as a chaplain in General Tom Green’s Brigade of the Confederate Army. In 1898, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the Austin School of Theology. Zivley died in Marlin, Texas in 1905.