author
Charles Otis Gill
b. 1868
Best remembered for co-writing a landmark study of rural churches in America, this New England minister also had an unexpected second life in early college football. His work blends social concern, practical observation, and a strong interest in community life.
1 Audiobook
Six Thousand Country Churches
by Charles Otis Gill, Gifford Pinchot
About the author
Born on March 4, 1868, Charles Otis Gill was an American Congregationalist clergyman whose writing focused on rural religious life in the United States. He is most often associated with Six Thousand Country Churches, a 1919 book written with Gifford Pinchot that examined the condition of churches in rural Ohio and became a notable work in the study of country communities.
Gill had an unusually varied career. Before his ministry and authorship were widely remembered, he was a prominent football player at Yale and was named an All-America player in 1889. He later also served briefly as a college football coach, adding an unexpected athletic chapter to a life more commonly linked with church work and social observation.
He died on June 2, 1959. For readers today, Gill is most interesting as a writer who brought careful attention to the everyday realities of small-town and rural America, especially the role churches played in community life.