William Backus Olmstead

William Backus Olmstead USA 1862-1941. He was born in Michigan. Musically inclined, he wrote a score: “A little while, O hands” for the piano. He wrote a handbook for Sunday school workers and a biography of the Rev Charles H Sage (his pioneering church work in MI and other states and formation of the Canadian church conference). He published three song books: “Light & life songs” (1904), “Voices of praise” (1909), and “Light & life songs #2” (1914). He also served on the commission (one of three editors) that produced the Free Methodist Hymnal (1910), published in Winona Lake, IN. He was living in Chicago in 1914. In 1921 he became Mission Secretary for the China Inland Mission of the Methodist Church. In 1923-24 he and his wife, Minnie, were engaged on a world-wide trip on behalf of the church, visiting hospitals, schools, leper colonies, and congregations across Japan, China, India, and southern Africa. He died in San Francisco, CA.

John Perry