From Wikipedia: Upon receiving his degree in theology in 1882, Babcock became pastor of a church at Lockport, New York. He was described as having “an unusually brilliant intellect and stirring oratorical powers that commanded admiration, [that] won for him a foremost place among the favorites of his denomination”.[5] From 1887 to 1900, Babcock was senior minister of the prestigious Brown Read more...
From Wikipedia: Alford was a talented artist, as his picture-book, The Riviera (1870), shows, and he had abundant musical and mechanical talent. Besides editing the works of John Donne, he published several volumes of his own verse, The School of the Heart (1835), The Abbot of Muchelnaye (1841), The Greek Testament. The Four Gospels (1849), and a number of hymns, the best-known of which are “Forward! be our watchword,” “Come, Read more...
From Wikipedia: Alexander was born at 25 Eccles Street, Dublin, the third child and second daughter of Major John Humphreys of Norfolk (land-agent to 4th Earl of Wicklow and later to the second Marquess of Abercorn), and Elizabeth (née Reed).[2] She began writing verse in her childhood, being strongly influenced by Dr Walter Hook, Dean of Chichester. Her subsequent religious work was strongly influenced by her contacts Read more...
From Wikipedia: Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. Author of: When All Thy Mercies, O My God 1 When all your mercies, O my God, my rising Read more...
From Wikipedia: Sarah Fuller Flower Adams (or Sally Adams[1]) (1805 – 1848) was an English poet and hymnwriter, best known for writing the words of the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee“.[2] In 1841, she published her longest work, Vivia Perpetua, A Dramatic Poem. In it, a young wife who refuses to submit to male control and renounce her Christian beliefs is put to death. She contributed Read more...
From https://hymnary.org/person/Ackley_Alfred and https://www.ackleygenealogy.com/nicholas/b833.htm Alfred Henry Ackley was born 21 January 1887 in Spring Hill, Pennsylvania. He was the youngest son of Stanley Frank Ackley and the younger brother of B. D. Ackley. His father taught him music and he also studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary in Maryland and was ordained Read more...
Sutcliff’s neighbors in Olney included the local minister of the Church of England, John Newton (1725-1807), author of “Amazing Grace.” Hymn writer and poet, William Cowper (1731-1800), was a member of Newton’s parish, and, at the time of Sutcliff’s arrival, Newton and Cowper were composing their popular “Olney Hymns.” Visit John Newton’s church and tombstone, and the Cowper and Newton Museum and Gardens. Read more...
Section 20, Lot 120 Author of Wonderful Grace of Jesus: 1. Wonderful grace of Jesus, Greater than all my sin; How shall my tongue describe it, Where shall its praise begin? Taking away my burden, Setting my spirit free; For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Refrain: Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the Read more...
1819 – Joseph Scriven – 1886 Author of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” Memorial Monument Featured Image Credit: Albert Bridge / Joseph Scriven memorial, Banbridge Read more...
Port Hope History: It became Joseph’s usual practice to spend the winter months in Bewdley and the summers in Port Hope, where he boarded for 22 years with Margaret, nee Brumfitt, the widow of Patrick Gibson, a milkman, in her house on Thomas Street at the corner of Merritt Street, which later became a part of Strachan Street. Mrs Gibson Read more...
Joseph Scriven (1819-1886) lived a life of sorrows. His fiancé died the night before they were to be married. Engaged again, this fiancé also tragically perished. He wrote a poem that he sent to his mother, that was set to music and published, as What a Friend We Have in Jesus. A memorial to him is found in his native Read more...
Home of the composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, who wrote the music for the song “In the Sweet By and By” There’s a land that is fairer than day, And by faith we can see it afar; For the Father waits over the way To prepare us a dwelling place there. Refrain: In the sweet by and by, We shall Read more...
Governor Alexander Randall was afraid Abraham Lincoln might lose the 1860 presidential election. In that case, Wisconsin would secede from the Union to protest the pro-slavery administration. The Irish Union Guard opposed secession, and as a result the governor confiscated their weapons. To raise money for new weapons, they chartered the PS Lady Elgin on September 6, 1860, for a Read more...
This hymn is a uniquely Wisconsin hymn. The words were written by a pastor buried in Wisconsin, and set to music by a pastor born in Wisconsin. Rev. Warren D. Cornell was born in Michigan but left at 19 to teach and preach in Texas. At 23 he came to Wisconsin, where he’d spend the next 40 years of his Read more...
From Wholesome Words: Her funeral filled the church with friends. The choir sang her favorite song …”Faith of Our Fathers”…then, her own…”Safe in the Arms of Jesus”…and, “Saved By Grace.” Her minister, George M. Brown, of the Methodist church said it well: There must have been a royal welcome when this queen of sacred song burst the bonds of death Read more...
Her funeral was held at her church, now Golden Hill Methodist, close to downtown Bridgeport. She is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, built by her friend P.T. Barnum. Just down from Fanny’s grave you’ll see the statue of General Tom Thumb, and Barnum’s own grave. Fanny requested a simple grave, but forty years after her death, the townsfolk built Read more...
Philip Bliss (1838-1876) is reported to be the second most famous hymnwriter in American history after Fanny Crosby, and if he would have lived as long as her, he may be even more famous. In Chautauqua, New York, he and his wife visited the Palestine Park. In 1863-64 he built his home in Rome, Pennsylvania. In 1965, it became the Read more...
Ida Lilliard Reed (November 30, 1865 – July 8, 1951) was an American religious writer and music composer from West Virginia. Composer and author Ida L. Reed was born on a hilltop farm near Philippi on November 30, 1865. In the face of illnesses, family deaths, and constant poverty, she was a devout Methodist all her life. She wrote some Read more...
George Duffield Jr., came from a family of preachers. Jr. is a bit of a misnomer – he was the fifth such George Duffield. The first Duffield was a native of Belfast, the second was chaplain to the Continental Congress. The fourth was a Presbyterian minister, as was our subject, Duffield the Fifth. Interestingly he did not pass on his Read more...
Born in Edinburg, PA, to a Methodist family, Ira Sankey (1840-1908) loved music from an early age. At 16 he was saved at the King’s Chapel revival meetings. At 21 he volunteered for the Union in the Civil War. At 23, he married Fanny Edward, and later became president of the New Castle YMCA. In 1870, Sankey came to Indianapolis Read more...
