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James Cannon Jr.

American bishop (1864–1944)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ6130983 ↗
Source-derived summary

James Cannon Jr. (November 13, 1864 – September 6, 1944) was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1918. He was a prominent leader in the temperance movement in the United States in the 1920s, until derailed by scandal. H. L. Mencken said in 1934: "Six years ago he was the undisputed boss of the United States. Congress was his troop of Boy Scouts, and Presidents trembled whenever his name was mentioned.... But since that time there has been a violent revolution, and his whole world is in collapse."

Birth and family

Cannon was born on November 13, 1864, in Salisbury, Maryland, the son of James and Lydia R. (Pimrose) Cannon. He married Miss Lura Virginia Bennett of Louisa County, Virginia, on August 1, 1888, who was the daughter of William W. Bennett, President of Randolph-Macon College from 1877 to 1886.

Education

Cannon was educated in the schools of Salisbury. He earned his A.B. degree from Randolph–Macon College in 1884. He earned his A.M. from Princeton University in 1889.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James Cannon Jr.” is american bishop (1864–1944). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Cannon and American, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 1944, 1918, 1934—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1864-11-13. For this dossier, James, Cannon and American is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american bishop (1864–1944)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6130983. VIAF identifies the subject as 64871248. The Library of Congress control number is n88205795. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1864, 1944, 1918 and 1934.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “James Cannon Jr.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.