Introduction

Biography

William was the son of Will­iam Wash­ing­ton Fife and Oli­via Ca­ro­line Davis, and hus­band of Jen­nie Reid Whit­ford.

He start­ed his adult life as a sales­man for se­ver­al North Ca­ro­li­na to­bac­co fac­to­ries. In Jan­ua­ry 1887, he came to Christ at a re­viv­al ser­vice in Char­lotte, North Ca­ro­lina, con­duct­ed by R. G. Pear­son.

He later be­came a preach­er in his own right, hold­ing large and suc­cess­ful re­viv­al meet­ings in North Ca­ro­li­na and else­where, and be­com­ing known as the Drum­mer Evan­gel­ist. After some years of this work, his voice gave out, and he had to give up preach­ing.

He went on to in­vest in oil wells around Beau­mont, Texas, and min­ing stocks in the west­ern Unit­ed States. He was as­so­ci­at­ed with the Great West­ern Oil Re­fin­ing and Pipe­line Com­pa­ny, and the Great Wes­tern Gold Mining Com­pa­ny, with of­fic­es in the Mis­sou­ri Trust build­ing in St. Lou­is.

He fre­quent­ly said that he ex­pect­ed to ap­ply the mon­ey from his in­vest­ments to mis­sion­ary work in Af­ri­ca.