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Hymn History: In the Sweet By and By Authors: Sanford Fillmore Bennett and Joseph Philbrick Webster “His (Bennett’s) poetry began appearing in [Illinois] newspapers and hymn collections; later he studied medicine while owning a drugstore in Wisconsin.” (Hymntime.com) The Origin of the Hymn “In the Sweet By and By” Among the most enduring and beloved hymns of the Read more...
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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 Read more...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Watch our interview at the Ira Sankey Collection at the Lawrence County Historical Society on OCH 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, Read more...
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Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a log house in Lake Spring (marked by the present Lake Spring Road) near Franklin, Kentucky, in 1866 – just after the Civil War. His boyhood was spent on a farm – and then at 16 he started teaching in the country schoolhouse he had attended. and in teaching district schools until he was Read more...
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Born November 27, 1862, Bloomfield, Iowa (birth name: Sarah Addison Pollard). Author of over 100 hymns and Gospel songs, Pollard was educated in Denmark, Iowa, Valparaiso, Indiana, at the Boston School of Oratory, and the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. She taught in Chicago, and at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Training School in New York. She worked for Read more...
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Wikipedia: George Bennard was a native of Youngstown, Ohio, but was reared in Iowa. After his conversion in a Salvation Army meeting, he and his wife became brigade leaders before leaving the organization for the Methodist Church.[1] As a Methodist evangelist, Bennard wrote the first verse of “The Old Rugged Cross” in Albion, Michigan, in the fall of 1912[a] as Read more...
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Hymn History: Have I Done My Best for Jesus? Author: E. Edwin Young “I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus, Who died upon the cruel tree?” (E. Edwin Young) The Origin of the Hymn “Have I Done My Best for Jesus?” The hymn “Have I Done My Best for Jesus?” is attributed to E. Edwin Young, Read more...