Martin Wells Knapp

Martin Wells Knapp was born March 27, 1853, in Albion, Michigan, to very poor parents who lived in a log cabin.

Martin's mother, Octavia, also a committed Christian, was the daughter of Melzar and Eunice Wells, of Sullivan, Madison County, New York.

Although Knapp was an extremely shy young man, at age 17 he began studies at a Methodist college in Albion, Michigan, on the 50 dollars his parents could give him after selling a calf.

During the ensuing period he impressed his biographer A. M. Hills as being "a little bundle of nerves and brain and heart, all alive and on fire for God and holiness."

Judging after the results of the following years, it seems he was indeed never stopping to rest:[1] he set up a publishing house for holiness literature in the YMCA building, established the Salvation Park Camp Meeting, and called for and initiated holiness missionary work, enlisting missionaries and through his paper and camp meeting and raising funds for them.

In 1900, Knapp purchased a two-acre tract of land in Cincinnati containing two large buildings and founded God's Bible School there.

His flurry of activism is best explained by the division which appeared in the late 19th century within the holiness movement, "between traditionalist moderates who remained loyal to the old denominations and radicals who wanted to form new bodies committed to innovative theological currents such as the eminent physical return of Jesus and divine healing.

While holiness moderates in the National Holiness Association (NHA) attempted a two-front war against foes that they believed were either dangerous liberals or rank fanatics, Knapp focused his attention on the moderates whom he believed were hopelessly tied to such passing human documents as the Apostles Creed.

Early radical centers were God’s Bible School in Cincinnati and the Chicago-based ministries of E. L. Harvey and Duke Farson.