Although Fanny Crosby spent the majority of her life in Manhattan (growing up at the New York Institution for the Blind, working with the Bowery Rescue Mission, etc.), she did spend the last 11 years of her life in Bridgeport. Using Darlene Neptune’s Fanny Crosby Still Lives as our guide, we took the train into Bridgeport, Connecticut to see if Read more...

Horatio Spafford, well-off lawyer and friend of D.L. Moody lived here on the north side of Chicago. During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, he lost much of his real estate holdings. A couple years later he sent his family ahead to Europe where D.L. Moody would be preaching. The Ville du Havre sank, and all four of his daughters Read more...

From Daytonian in Manhattan: Three blocks to the north, on Ninth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Street, the New York Asylum for the Blind had stood since 1831.  In 1839 it had taken in a 19-year old student, Franny J. Crosby, who quickly was recognized for her talent in writing poetry and hymns.  Fanny had been blinded by an incompetent physician at Read more...

Hello… My name is Fanny Crosby. I entered the New York Institution for the Blind as a student in 1835 at the age of 15. I later taught grammar, rhetoric, and history as a faculty member of the school. I published two autobiographies, four books of poetry, and over 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, some of which are still sung today. Read more...

  At 26, Herbert G. Tovey wrote the song “Give Me a Passion for Souls” – out of 1,500 songs published under his Sacred Music Foundation, this was the most popular. 1 Give me a passion for souls, dear Lord, A passion to save the lost; O that Thy love were by all adored, And welcomed at any cost. Refrain: Read more...

Inscription: Famous singing evangelist, fellow-worker with Dwight L. Moody in Europe and in America, was born August 28, 1840, at Edinburg, in a house since removed. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 13, 1908. Photo by Mike Wintermantel, HMDB.org Read more...

Actual grave location unknown – check findagrave and cemetery map   Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master, Though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves; When our weeping’s over, He will bid us welcome, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves, Read more...

Ballard Baptist Church, Seattle, WA   We’re here in Seattle at Ballard Baptist Church, built in 1919, where Helen Lemmel was a member while she wrote Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus. She was born Mary Helen Howarth in the Manchester area of England, November 14, 1863, to a Methodist Minister. Her father took the family from England to Whitewater, Wisconsin Read more...

Listen to a 10-15 minute audio narrative of the Ashtabula Train Disaster and learn more about Phillip Bliss in front of the hospital that was built as a result of the horrific disaster. Read more...

Phillip Bliss and his wife were headed from their home in Rome, Pennsylvania, to Chicago to reunite with the evangelist D. L. Moody. On December 29th, 1876, their train, the Pacific Express was crossing a trestle bridge near Ashtabula, Ohio. The bridge collapsed, and the train cars fell into the ravine. In that day, each train car had a stove Read more...