Major William Evander Penn (1832–1895) was a Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 evangelist and well known minister who preached widely in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. His visit of castles in Europe inspired him to build a castle of his own in 1888 where he and his wife Marilla lived for several years. "Penn castle" still stands in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

and was featured on the HGTV show "If Walls Could Talk". The First Baptist Penn Memorial Church of Eureka Springs was named in his honor. He authored an enduring hymn, The Sheltering Rock

External links

• Bio at Handbook of Texas Online
• J. Michael Linder, William Evander Penn: Texas Baptist evangelist, Baptist History and Heritage, 2003
• The Sheltering Rock The Cyber Hymnal