.Hymn Writer. Served in the First Methodist Church in Cape May, New Jersey for 60 years. He served in the American Civil War in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was also a riverboat pilot on the Delaware River. Cousin of hymn writer Eliza Edmund Hewitts. Author of Beulah Land and Simply Trusting. Simply trusting every day, Trusting through a stormy way; Even Read more...

Written on stationary from the Brevoort House in Chicago, Horatio Spafford penned this famous hymn while on a ship as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Not that long ago, his daughters had drowned after the Ville du Havre suffered a tragic crash. His wife telegraphed back, “Saved alone.” The manuscript is now found at the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem. Read more...

From FindAGrave: Hymn Writer, Religious Figure. He was a successful businessman in Chicago, Illinois in the late 1800s who lost a great deal of real estate in the Chicago Fire. He penned the famous hymn “It Is Well” after receiving word of the death of his four daughters in an accident at sea on November 22, 1873. Eventually having two Read more...

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...