Scofield, C.I. (Cyrus Ingerson), 1843-1921

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield was born August 19, 1843 in Michigan, the seventh child of Elias and Abigail Scofield. In 1866, Scofield married Leontene Cerré in St. Louis, Missouri. They settled in Atchison, Kansas, where he practiced law Kansas was elected to the lower house of the Kansas legislature in 1871 and 1872. He served as U.S. District Attorney of Kansas in 1873. Undisclosed problems caused Scofield to resign his post within six months. Cyrus and Leontene had three children, Abigail, Helene, and Guy. Guy died when he was still a child. Scofield's wife obtained a legal separation in 1877, and they were eventually divorced in 1883. Scofield returned to St. Louis in 1879, where he drank heavily until he experienced a conversion later that year. Scofield worked in the evangelistic campaign of D.L. Moody in St. Louis, 1879-80. Scofield served as acting secretary of the YMCA in the city, and was licensed to preach in 1880. He organized and served as pastor of the Hyde Park Congregational Church, in St. Louis. Scofield accepted a call to pastor a small mission, First Congregational Church, in Dallas, Texas, and was ordained by the North Texas Congregational Association in 1883.

In 1884 he married Hettie Hall Wartz, and their only child, Noel Paul was born in 1888. Scofield helped start other churches and missions in the area. He also served as secretary of the Department of Texas and Louisiana of the American Home Missionary Society. In 1890, he helped found the denominational Lake Charles College in Louisiana, then served as chairman of its board of trustees. Scofield organized the Central American Mission, now CAM International, in 1890. He also developed a Bible correspondence course and edited the periodical The Believer. In 1888, he wrote the book Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth, defending dispensational premillennialism. Scofield's church in Dallas grew from fourteen to over eight hundred members by the time he left in 1895 to become pastor of D.L. Moody's church, the Trinitarian Congregational Church of East Northfield, Massachusetts.

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