The Stone-Campbell Movement resulted from a confluence of several international efforts to restore the life and faith of the first century church in the nineteenth century. The Movement in the twenty-first century claims about five million members around the globe. Illinois played a pivotal role the early years. In 1880 there were more members of the movement in Illinois than in any state in the United States or in any country in the world. We elaborate upon the various religious tributaries involved from the beginning and have depicted churches, leaders, members, educational institutions, books, journals, and organizations in their various and wide-ranging manifestations. Authors of earlier published histories of the Movement in Illinois did not have access to some important primary sources that the authors of this new history have been able to utilize, including correspondence, books, periodicals and ephemera located in libraries, personal collections, historical societies and online. A significant number of these sources have been digitized just for this project. Illinois readers will identify the roots of the Movement in their region and readers elsewhere will recognize insights that impact the total Movement and forces related to their own situation.

Thomas H. Olbricht grew up in Southern Missouri. He attended Harding University and received degrees at Northern Illinois University, the University of Iowa, and Harvard Divinity School. Olbricht commenced preaching in 1948 in small congregations in Arkansas and Missouri. In 1948 he helped found a Church of Christ in DeKalb, Illinois, where he served as the full time minister in 1949-51. Olbricht has published books and essays on Biblical theology, rhetoric and church history, especially on the American Restoration Movement. He has taught at Harding, the University of Dubuque, Abilene Christian, and Pepperdine University.