William Joseph Seymour was born to freed slaves Simon and Phyllis Seymour in Centerville, Louisiana. In the 1890s, during the height of Dowie’s highly publicized ministry, Seymour traveled north on a journey of spiritual enlightenment through Memphis, St. Louis, and eventually Indianapolis, Indiana. There, he converted from the Roman Catholic Church to the Protestant faith through a Methodist church. Seymour was not fully committed to the Methodists, however, and was soon influenced into the Holiness faith through Daniel S. Warner’s “Evening Light Saints” sect just outside of Indianapolis. The “Evening Light Saints” was a radical Holiness group that focused heavily on the End of Days, basing their theology upon a verse in the book of Zechariah, Chapter 14 verse 7: "at evening time it shall be light." The peculiar sect considered their abstinence from coffee, tobacco, and modern clothing styles to be part of this “evening light.” Declaring that the End of Days was drawing near, they believed that their “light” was shining on those about to suffer the consequences of doomsday. It was in this sect that Seymour was ordained to be a minister.

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