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Clara Tear Williams

1858 - 1937 Person Name: Miss Clara Teare Hymnal Number: 25 Author of "Satisfied" in Old Time Glory Williams, Mrs. Clara Tear. (Painesville, Ohio, September 22, 1858--July 1, 1937, Houghton, New York). As a young woman she was a school teacher. She suffered an attack of tuberculosis but fully recovered from it and for a number of years engaged in evangelistic work in several North Central states. In 1895 she married the Reverend W.H. Williams, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and until his death thirty years later labored with him in serving churches in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She was a member of the Commission of her church which compiled Sacred Hymns and Tunes, 1897. --Robert G. McCutchan, DNAH Archives. Photocopied photos (uncited) of Clara Tear Williams and pages from a manuscript family history by Frank W. Tear are also available in the DNAH archives. ========================== Rev. Mrs. Clara Tear Williams was a pastor and evangelist. From what records are available, it appears that she affiliated with the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the 1880s. The information suggests that she was a Licensed Minister, but never ordained. She served on the Committee to compile the WMC hymn book, "Sacred Hymns and Tunes" in 1897. She married William H. Williams in 1895 whom she had met while conducting meetings in Middlefield, Ohio. He had been widowed in 1881. He joined her in the ministry, the first mention of him in the Pastoral Relations Report being in 1901. He died May 17, 1934 in Houghton, New York. According to Mrs. Williams' obituary, she was connected with the Allegheny and Lockport Conferences of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. No reference was found to her in the Minutes of the Lockport Conference, but she was mentioned in the Minutes of the New York Conference. Though there is no body of minutes available for the early years of the Allegheny Conference, Mrs. Williams can be found in the Statistical and Pastoral Relations reports sent to The Wesleyan Methodist. The following information is taken from those sources. Allegheny Conference/New York Conference, WMC: 1886-1887: Clara Tear is assigned by the Allegheny Conference to serve as Evangelist at Large, and to Concord, Ohio. 1888: No mention found at either Conference. 1889: Clara Tear is on the Licentiate List for the Allegheny Conference, no assignment; she is present at this year's session of the New York Conference and introduced as being from the Allegheny Conference. 1890: Listed as an Evangelist at Large for the Allegheny Conference; present at the New York Conference and listed as a lay delegate and General Missionary. 1891: On the Licentiate List for the Allegheny Conference but no assignment given; present at the New York Conference, her name was called, character passed, and License renewed; she reported she had been in evangelistic work, then had taken charge of the work at Lake Hill for the remainder of the year; she is listed as a General Evangelist and was elected as a lay delegate to the 1891 General Conference. 1892: General Evangelist for the Allegheny Conference. 1893 Assigned to supply the pulpit at Keepville, Pennsylvania and General Evangelistic work. 1894: Assigned to care for Middlefield, Ohio; General Evangelist. 1895: General Evangelist; elected as a lay delegate to the General Conference. 1896-1899: General Evangelist. 1900: Assigned to Pine Grove, Pennsylvania. 1901: Clara T. and W.H. Williams to supply Indiana, Pennsylvania. 1902-1904: Joint assignment to Pine Grove, Penn. 1905-1907: Joint assignment to Canton, Ohio. 1908-1916: Joint assignment to Massillon, Ohio. 1917: Both to supply Middlefield, Ohio. 1918-1919: Join assignment to Pine Grove, Penn. 1920- : Both are listed as Superannuated. --Information supplied by The Wesleyan Church Archives and Historical Library, 26 February 1996. Also includes photocopy of obituary from The Wesleyan Methodist 28 July 1937. DNAH Archives.

John R. Sweney

1837 - 1899 Person Name: Jno. R. Sweney Hymnal Number: 4 Composer of "[There is sunshine in my soul today]" in Old Time Glory John R. Sweney (1837-1899) was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and exhibited musical abilities at an early age. At nineteen he was studying with a German music teacher, leading a choir and glee club, and performing at children’s entertainments. By twenty-two he was teaching at a school in Dover, Delaware. Soon thereafter, he was put in charge of the band of the Third Delaware Regiment of the Union Army for the duration of the Civil War. After the war, he became Professor of Music at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, and director of Sweney’s Cornet Band. He eventually earned Bachelor and Doctor of Music degrees at the Academy. Sweney began composing church music in 1871 and became well-known as a leader of large congregations. His appreciators stated “Sweney knows how to make a congregation sing” and “He had great power in arousing multitudes.” He also became director of music for a large Sunday school at the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia of which John Wanamaker was superintendent (Wanamaker was the founder of the first major department store in Philadelphia). In addition to his prolific output of hymn melodies and other compositions, Sweney edited or co-edited about sixty song collections, many in collaboration with William J. Kirkpatrick. Sweney died on April 10, 1899, and his memorial was widely attended and included a eulogy by Wanamaker. Joe Hickerson from "Joe's Jottings #9" used by permission

James M. Kirk

1854 - 1945 Person Name: J. M. K. Hymnal Number: 69 Author of "Our Lord's Return to Earth Again" in Old Time Glory James McPherson Kirk, 1854-1945 Born: June 18, 1854, Flushing, Ohio. Died: June 10, 1945, Flushing, Ohio. Buried: Flushing, Ohio. Raised a Methodist, Kirk became associated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CAMA) in 1887. He organized the CAMA’s Gospel Mission in Flushing, Ohio, in 1907, and as part of the Ohio Quartet, sang at CAMA conventions and gatherings. --www.hymntime.com/tch/ ========================== Kirk, James M. (Flushing, Ohio, 1854--1945). Converted at an early age. Became associated with the C&MA in 1887, was a first subscriber to The Alliance Weekly, and wonderfully healed at the first Cleveland Alliance convention. Spent entire life on a farm but devoted much time to Christian work. A member of a famous singing group, the Ohio Quartet, which for 12 years traveled extensively in convention work. In 1906 organized the Gospel Mission of the C&MA in Flushing. An outstanding figure in the Central District as song leader and in Bible teaching and prayer. Grandfather of Geraldine Southern, well-known mezzo-soprano, music instructor at Nyack, and director of music in Alliance churches. Kirk wrote some 40 songs, many while busy with farm chores. Some favorites: Blessed Quietness He Is Just the Same Today I've Yielded to God --Paul Milburn, DNAH Archives

Henry J. Zelley

1859 - 1942 Person Name: Rev. H. J. Zelley Hymnal Number: 40 Author of "Heavenly Sunlight" in Old Time Glory Henry Jeffreys Zelley was born at Mt. Holly, NJ, on Mar. 15, 1859. Educated in the Mt. Holly public schools, at Pennington Seminary, and at Taylor University, where he earned his M. A., Ph. D., and D. D. degrees, he became a Methodist minister in 1882 and first served in the New Jersey Conference as a statistical secretary, treasurer, and trustee, becoming a promoter of the campmeeting movement. Noted for his evangelistic fervor, Zelley produced over 1500 poems, hymns, and gospel songs. One of his songs, "He Brought Me Out" with music by Henry L. Gilmour, appears in several denominational hymnals. Cyberhymnal also lists "When Israel Out of Bondage Came" or "He Rolled the Sea Away" with music by Gilmour too. Another of Zelley’s songs, "The Mountains of Faith" with music by M. L. McPhail, is found in Sacred Selections. After working with nineteen different churches in the New Jersey Conference over his lifetime, Zelley, who also served as a trustee of Pennington Seminary, retired in 1929 and died at Trenton, NJ, on Mar. 16, 1942. --http://homeschoolblogger.com/hymnstudies

A. J. Showalter

1858 - 1924 Hymnal Number: 121 Composer of "[What a fellowship, what a joy divine]" in Old Time Glory Anthony Johnson Showalter USA 1858-1924/ Born in Cherry Grove, VA, he became an organist, gospel music composer, author, teacher, editor, and publisher. He was taught by his father and in 1876 received training at the Ruebush-Kieffer School of Music, Dayton, VA. He also attended George Root’s National Normal school at Erie, PA, and Dr Palmer’s International Normal at Meadville, PA. He was teaching music in shape note singing schools by age 14. He taught literary school at age 19, and normal music schools at age 22, when he also published his first book. In 1881 he married Lucy Carolyn (Callie) Walser of TX, and they had seven children: Tennie, Karl, Essie, Jennie, Lena, Margaret, and Nellie. At age 23 he published his “Harmony & composition” book, and years later his “Theory of music”. In 1884 he moved to Dalton, GA, and in 1890 formed the Showalter Music Company of Dalton. His company printed and published hymnals, songbooks, schoolbooks, magazines, and newspapers, and had offices in Texarkana, AR, and Chattanooga, TN. In 1888 he became a member of the M T N A (Music Teachers National Association) and was vice-president for his state for several years. In 1895 he went abroad to study methods of teachers and conductors in Europe. He held sessions of his Southern Normal Music Institute in a dozen or more states. He edited “The music teacher & home magazine” for 20 years. In 1895 he issued his “New harmony & composition” book. He authored 60+ books on music theory, harmony, and song. He published 130+ music books that sold over a million copies. Not only was he president of the A J Showalter Music Company of Dalton, GA, but also of the Showalter-Patton Company of Dallas, TX, two of the largest music publishing houses in the American south. He was a choir leader and an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Dalton (and his daughter, Essie, played the organ there). He managed his fruit farm, looking after nearly 20,000 trees , of which 15,000 are the famous Georgia Elberta peaches, the rest being apples, plums, pecans, and a dozen other varieties of peaches. He was also a stockholder and director of the Cherokee Lumber Company of Dalton, GA, furnishing building materials to a large trade in many southern, central and eastern states. He died in Chattanooga, TN, and is buried in Dalton, GA. He loved hymns, and kept up with many of his students over the years, writing them letters of counsel and encouragement. In 2000 Showalter was inducted into the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Note: Showalter received two letters one evening from former music students, both of who were grieving over the death of their wives. He had heard a sermon about the arms of Moses being held up during battle, and managed to form a tune and refrain for a hymn, but struggled to find words for the verses that fit. He wrote to his friend in OH, Rev Elisha Hoffman, who had already composed many hymns and asked if he could write some lyrics, which he gladly did. John Perry

George Duffield

1818 - 1888 Hymnal Number: 23 Author of "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" in Old Time Glory Duffield, George, Jr., D.D., son of the Rev. Dr. Duffield, a Presbyterian Minister, was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Sept. 12, 1818, and graduated at Yale College, and at the Union Theological Seminary, New York. From 1840 to 1847 he was a Presbyterian Pastor at Brooklyn; 1847 to 1852, at Bloomfield, New Jersey; 1852 to 1861, at Philadelphia; 1861 to 1865, at Adrian, Michigan; 1865 to 1869, at Galesburg, Illinois; 1869, at Saginaw City, Michigan; and from 1869 at Ann Arbor and Lansing, Michigan. His hymns include;— 1. Blessed Saviour, Thee I love. Jesus only. One of four hymns contributed by him to Darius E. Jones's Temple Melodies, 1851. It is in 6 stanzas of 6 lines. In Dr. Hatfield's Church Hymnbook it is given in 3 stanzas. The remaining three hymns of the same date are:— 2. Parted for some anxious days. Family Hymn. 3. Praise to our heavenly Father, God. Family Union. 4. Slowly in sadness and in tears. Burial. 5. Stand up, stand up for Jesus. Soldiers of the Cross. The origin of this hymn is given in Lyra Sac. Americana, 1868, p. 298, as follows:— "I caught its inspiration from the dying words of that noble young clergyman, Rev. Dudley Atkins Tyng, rector of the Epiphany Church, Philadelphia, who died about 1854. His last words were, ‘Tell them to stand up for Jesus: now let us sing a hymn.' As he had been much persecuted in those pro-slavery days for his persistent course in pleading the cause of the oppressed, it was thought that these words had a peculiar significance in his mind; as if he had said, ‘Stand up for Jesus in the person of the downtrodden slave.' (Luke v. 18.)" Dr. Duffield gave it, in 1858, in manuscript to his Sunday School Superintendent, who published it on a small handbill for the children. In 1858 it was included in The Psalmist, in 6 stanzas of 8 lines. It was repeated in several collections and in Lyra Sac. Amer., 1868, from whence it passed, sometimes in an abbreviated form, into many English collections. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] - John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

Sanford Fillmore Bennett

1836 - 1898 Person Name: S. F. Bennett Hymnal Number: 82 Author of "Sweet By and By" in Old Time Glory Sanford Fillmore Bennett was born in Eden, New York, 21 June 1836. He and his parents moved to Plainfield, Illinois when he was two years old. He worked on the farm and attended district school during the winter. He was a voracious reader. At sixteen he entered Waukegon Academy. Two years later he began teaching at Wauconda. In 1858 he entered the University of Michigan, Afterward he had charge of the schools in Richmond, Illinois. Two years later he resigned and became Associate Editor of the Independent at Elkhorn, Wisconsin. In 1864 he enlisted in the Wisconsin Volunteers and served as Second Lieutenant. After the war he returned to Elkhorn and opened a drug store and began the study of medicine. He graduated from Rush Medical College in 1874. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916)

James M. Black

1856 - 1938 Person Name: J. M. B. Hymnal Number: 84 Author of "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder" in Old Time Glory James Milton Black USA 1856-1938 Born in South Hill, NY, Black was an American hymn composer, choir leader and Sunday school teacher. He worked, lived,and died in Williamsport, PA. An active member, he worked at the Pine Tree Methodist Episcopal Church there. He married Lucy Love Levan. He started his music career with John Howard of New York and Daniel B. Towner of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He edited a dozen gospel song books and wrote nearly 1500 songs. He also served on the commission for the 1905 Methodist Hymnal. John Perry

William Cowper

1731 - 1800 Hymnal Number: 115 Author of "There Is a Fountain" in Old Time Glory William Cowper (pronounced "Cooper"; b. Berkampstead, Hertfordshire, England, 1731; d. East Dereham, Norfolk, England, 1800) is regarded as one of the best early Romantic poets. To biographers he is also known as "mad Cowper." His literary talents produced some of the finest English hymn texts, but his chronic depression accounts for the somber tone of many of those texts. Educated to become an attorney, Cowper was called to the bar in 1754 but never practiced law. In 1763 he had the opportunity to become a clerk for the House of Lords, but the dread of the required public examination triggered his tendency to depression, and he attempted suicide. His subsequent hospitalization and friendship with Morley and Mary Unwin provided emotional stability, but the periods of severe depression returned. His depression was deepened by a religious bent, which often stressed the wrath of God, and at times Cowper felt that God had predestined him to damnation. For the last two decades of his life Cowper lived in Olney, where John Newton became his pastor. There he assisted Newton in his pastoral duties, and the two collaborated on the important hymn collection Olney Hymns (1779), to which Cowper contributed sixty-eight hymn texts. Bert Polman ============ Cowper, William, the poet. The leading events in the life of Cowper are: born in his father's rectory, Berkhampstead, Nov. 26, 1731; educated at Westminster; called to the Bar, 1754; madness, 1763; residence at Huntingdon, 1765; removal to Olney, 1768; to Weston, 1786; to East Dereham, 1795; death there, April 25, 1800. The simple life of Cowper, marked chiefly by its innocent recreations and tender friendships, was in reality a tragedy. His mother, whom he commemorated in the exquisite "Lines on her picture," a vivid delineation of his childhood, written in his 60th year, died when he was six years old. At his first school he was profoundly wretched, but happier at Westminster; excelling at cricket and football, and numbering Warren Hastings, Colman, and the future model of his versification. Churchill, among his contemporaries or friends. Destined for the Bar, he was articled to a solicitor, along with Thurlow. During this period he fell in love with his cousin, Theodora Cowper, sister to Lady Hesketh, and wrote love poems to her. The marriage was forbidden by her father, but she never forgot him, and in after years secretly aided his necessities. Fits of melancholy, from which he had suffered in school days, began to increase, as he entered on life, much straitened in means after his father's death. But on the whole, it is the playful, humorous side of him that is most prominent in the nine years after his call to the Bar; spent in the society of Colman, Bonnell Thornton, and Lloyd, and in writing satires for The Connoisseur and St. James's Chronicle and halfpenny ballads. Then came the awful calamity, which destroyed all hopes of distinction, and made him a sedentary invalid, dependent on his friends. He had been nominated to the Clerkship of the Journals of the House of Lords, but the dread of appearing before them to show his fitness for the appointment overthrew his reason. He attempted his life with "laudanum, knife and cord,"—-in the third attempt nearly succeeding. The dark delusion of his life now first showed itself—a belief in his reprobation by God. But for the present, under the wise and Christian treatment of Dr. Cotton (q. v.) at St. Albans, it passed away; and the eight years that followed, of which the two first were spent at Huntingdon (where he formed his lifelong friendship with Mrs. Unwin), and the remainder at Olney in active piety among the poor, and enthusiastic devotions under the guidance of John Newton (q. v.), were full of the realisation of God's favour, and the happiest, most lucid period of his life. But the tension of long religious exercises, the nervous excitement of leading at prayer meetings, and the extreme despondence (far more than the Calvinism) of Newton, could scarcely have been a healthy atmosphere for a shy, sensitive spirit, that needed most of all the joyous sunlight of Christianity. A year after his brother's death, madness returned. Under the conviction that it was the command of God, he attempted suicide; and he then settled down into a belief in stark contradiction to his Calvinistic creed, "that the Lord, after having renewed him in holiness, had doomed him to everlasting perdition" (Southey). In its darkest form his affliction lasted sixteen months, during which he chiefly resided in J. Newton's house, patiently tended by him and by his devoted nurse, Mrs. Unwin. Gradually he became interested in carpentering, gardening, glazing, and the tendance of some tame hares and other playmates. At the close of 1780, Mrs. Unwin suggested to him some serious poetical work; and the occupation proved so congenial, that his first volume was published in 1782. To a gay episode in 1783 (his fascination by the wit of Lady Austen) his greatest poem, The Task, and also John Gilpin were owing. His other principal work was his Homer, published in 1791. The dark cloud had greatly lifted from his life when Lady Hesketh's care accomplished his removal to Weston (1786): but the loss of his dear friend William Unwin lowered it again for some months. The five years' illness of Mrs. Unwin, during which his nurse of old became his tenderly-watched patient, deepened the darkness more and more. And her death (1796) brought “fixed despair," of which his last poem, The Castaway, is the terrible memorial. Perhaps no more beautiful sentence has been written of him, than the testimony of one, who saw him after death, that with the "composure and calmness" of the face there “mingled, as it were, a holy surprise." Cowper's poetry marks the dawn of the return from the conventionality of Pope to natural expression, and the study of quiet nature. His ambition was higher than this, to be the Bard of Christianity. His great poems show no trace of his monomania, and are full of healthy piety. His fame as a poet is less than as a letter-writer: the charm of his letters is unsurpassed. Though the most considerable poet, who has written hymns, he has contributed little to the development of their structure, adopting the traditional modes of his time and Newton's severe canons. The spiritual ideas of the hymns are identical with Newton's: their highest note is peace and thankful contemplation, rather than joy: more than half of them are full of trustful or reassuring faith: ten of them are either submissive (44), self-reproachful (17, 42, 43), full of sad yearning (1, 34), questioning (9), or dark spiritual conflict (38-40). The specialty of Cowper's handling is a greater plaintiveness, tenderness, and refinement. A study of these hymns as they stood originally under the classified heads of the Olney Hymns, 1779, which in some cases probably indicate the aim of Cowper as well as the ultimate arrangement of the book by Newton, shows that one or two hymns were more the history of his conversion, than transcripts of present feelings; and the study of Newton's hymns in the same volume, full of heavy indictment against the sins of his own regenerate life, brings out the peculiar danger of his friendship to the poet: it tends also to modify considerably the conclusions of Southey as to the signs of incipient madness in Cowper's maddest hymns. Cowper's best hymns are given in The Book of Praise by Lord Selborne. Two may be selected from them; the exquisitely tender "Hark! my soul, it is the Lord" (q. v.), and "Oh, for a closer walk with God" (q. v.). Anyone who knows Mrs. Browning's noble lines on Cowper's grave will find even a deeper beauty in the latter, which is a purely English hymn of perfect structure and streamlike cadence, by connecting its sadness and its aspiration not only with the “discord on the music" and the "darkness on the glory," but the rapture of his heavenly waking beneath the "pathetic eyes” of Christ. Authorities. Lives, by Hayley; Grimshaw; Southey; Professor Goldwin Smith; Mr. Benham (attached to Globe Edition); Life of Newton, by Rev. Josiah Bull; and the Olney Hymns. The numbers of the hymns quoted refer to the Olney Hymns. [Rev. H. Leigh Bennett, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================ Cowper, W. , p. 265, i. Other hymns are:— 1. Holy Lord God, I love Thy truth. Hatred of Sin. 2. I was a grovelling creature once. Hope and Confidence. 3. No strength of nature can suffice. Obedience through love. 4. The Lord receives His highest praise. Faith. 5. The saints should never be dismayed. Providence. All these hymns appeared in the Olney Hymns, 1779. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) ===================== Cowper, W., p. 265, i. Prof. John E. B. Mayor, of Cambridge, contributed some letters by Cowper, hitherto unpublished, together with notes thereon, to Notes and Queries, July 2 to Sept. 24, 1904. These letters are dated from Huntingdon, where he spent two years after leaving St. Alban's (see p. 265, i.), and Olney. The first is dated "Huntingdon, June 24, 1765," and the last "From Olney, July 14, 1772." They together with extracts from other letters by J. Newton (dated respectively Aug. 8, 1772, Nov. 4, 1772), two quotations without date, followed by the last in the N. & Q. series, Aug. 1773, are of intense interest to all students of Cowper, and especially to those who have given attention to the religious side of the poet's life, with its faint lights and deep and awful shadows. From the hymnological standpoint the additional information which we gather is not important, except concerning the hymns "0 for a closer walk with God," "God moves in a mysterious way," "Tis my happiness below," and "Hear what God, the Lord, hath spoken." Concerning the last three, their position in the manuscripts, and the date of the last from J. Newton in the above order, "Aug. 1773," is conclusive proof against the common belief that "God moves in a mysterious way" was written as the outpouring of Cowper's soul in gratitude for the frustration of his attempted suicide in October 1773. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

James Nicholson

1828 - 1896 Hymnal Number: 120 Author of "Whiter Than Snow" in Old Time Glory James L Nicholson United Kingdom/USA 1828-1876. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States around age 25. He lived in Philadelphia, PA, worked as a postal clerk, and was a member of the Wharton Street Methodist Episcopal Church there for about 20 years, where he taught Sunday school, led singing in church, and assisted in evangelical work. This was also hymn writer, William J Kirkpatrick’s, church. Around 1871 he moved to Washington, DC, and worked as a postal clerk there. In addition to his hymn writing, he also wrote several books, one on birds and their care, one on forensic medicine. He died in Washington, DC, but was buried in Philadelphia, PA. John Perry =============== Nicholson, James, an American Methodist minister, is the author of (1) "Dear [Lord] Jesus I long to be perfectly whole" (Holiness desired); and (2) "There's a beautiful land on high " (Heaven), both of which are in I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, 1878. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)