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Oswald J. Smith

1889 - 1986 Hymnal Number: d6 Author of "Then go, preach the gospel" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) Smith, Oswald Jeffrey. (Odessa, Ontario, November 8, 1889--January 25, 1986, Toronto, Canada). Presbyterian. Attended Manitoba College, Winnipeg, 1909-1910; Toronto Bible College, 1907-1908, 1910-1912; McCormick Theological Seminary, 1912-1915; further study at Knox College, Toronto; several honorary doctorates. Pastorates in Toronto, 1915-1958; frequently conducted evangelistic meetings and crusades elsewhere. In 1928 he organized the virtually autonomous People's Church, which combines a vigorous evangelistic program in Toronto with an enviable overseas missionary network; in 1958 he relinquished its guidance to his son Paul, but remained its highly active minister emeritus. He published some 35 devotional and inspirational books, which he eventually combined into fourteen; most of his 1200 hymns and poems first appeared in church-connected magazines, but many are found in Poems of a Lifetime (London: Marshall, 1962). --Hugh D. McKellar, DNAH Archives

Haldor Lillenas

1885 - 1959 Hymnal Number: d23 Author of "A well springs up in my soul" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) Rv Haldor Lillenas DMus Norway/USA 1885-1959. Born at Stord, near Bergen, Norway, his father sold their 15 acre farm in Norway and emigrated to the U.S., buying a farm in Colton, SD. After he built a sod house, the family (wife and three chldren) also came to SD in 1887. They moved to Astoria, Oregon in 1889, where Lillenas learned English and began writing song lyrics at an early age. In 1900 the family moved again to Roseville, MN, where he worked as a farm laborer and began attending a Lutheran high school at Hawick, MN. He sold a few songs at age 19. At age 21 he began writing more songs, encouraged by some earlier ones becoming popular (“He set me free” was one). His mother died in 1906 and his father returned to ND, but Lillenas decided to move back to Astoria, OR, to finish a chemical correspondence course he had been taking. There he found employment in a chemical factory. He started attending a Lutheran church, but one evening he heard the song, “Tell mother I’ll be there”, sung at a mission. It made him decide to commit his life to Christ. An elderly lady who worked there told him about Jesus, and he began attending the Peniel Mission, a holiness rescue mission in Astoria, OR. He started working at the mission himself. In 1907 he moved to Portland, OR, where he worked with the Peniel Mission there, the mission paying most of his expenses. He was appointed leader of the mission. He saw many there come to know Christ and felt called to the Lord’s work. He joined the First Church of the Nazarene in Portland. Soon he enrolled in a ministerial course of study by correspondence. Soon afterward, he joined a vocal group associated with the Salvation Army called the ‘Charioteers Brigade’, which held street meetings and revival services throught much of CA. As a result of generous donations made, and efforts by his pastor, A O Hendricks, he was able to attend Pacific Bible College (later renamed Pasadena College), Los Angeles, CA. He also found part-time work to help support himself. He was soon a music director at a local church, and was preaching and writing songs. He also studied voice at the Lyric School of Music in Los Angeles, CA. While at Deets, he met and married Bertha Mae Wilson, also on an evangelistic team. Both preached. She was a songwriter like he. They practiced music at her father’s house and found that their voices blended well. They had two children: Evangline, and Wendell. They eventually became elders in the Nazarene Church, and she eventually became an ordained minister as well. He also studied music at the Siegel-Myers School of Music Chicago, IL. He composed songs for cantatas, Christmas, Easter, and special day services. He also used several pseudonyms in their composition. He traveled as an evangelist, then he pastored several churches (1910-1924) at Lompoc, CA, then Redlands, CA, and later in Indianapolis, IN. While there, In 1924, he founded the Lillenas Music Company (bought by the Nazarene Publishing Company in 1930). His wife preached at their pastorate until he was able to get the company up and running. While they owned the company, they published more than 700,000 hymnals. He worked as an editor there (after selling his company) until his retirement in 1950, becoming an advisor for them until his death. Also that year Lillenas purchased a 500 acre rural estate in Miller County, MO, where they built an Ozark home called ‘Melody Lane’. Lillenas joined the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1938. In 1941 he received an honorable doctorate degree from Olivet Nazarene College, Bourbonnais, IL. In 1945 Bertha died of cancer, and later that year Lillenas remarried to a Lola Dell, and they lived in Melody Lane until 1955, when they moved to Pasadena, CA, attending the Nazarene Church there. They also made three trips to Norway after his retirement, and he wrote three books during that time: “Modern gospel song stories (1952), “Down Melody Lane (an autobiography): (1953), “Motoring 11,000 miles through Norway-A guide for tourists” (1955). In 1955 they toured Israel and sponsored a Palestinian Greek Orthodox family he had met as immigrants to the US that included Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (born in 1944). After they arrived in Pasadena, the Sirhan family stayed with Lillenas for several months, after which the Sirhans moved to a home Lillenas rented and furnished to them. When Mary Sirhan’s husband abandoned her and her two sons and returned to Jordan, Lillenas ensured that they were able to remain in the US. S B Sirhan was the convicted killer of Robert Kennedy. Lillenas wrote some 4000 hymn lyrics, supplying some for evangelists. Four of his song books contain his hymns: “Special sacred songs” (1919), “New Sacred Songs”, “Strains of love”, and “Special sacred songs #2”. He died at Aspen, CO. He is buried at Kansas City, MO. He was an author, editor, compiler, composer, and contributor. He edited and compiled over 50 song books. John Perry

Civilla D. Martin

1866 - 1948 Hymnal Number: d31 Author of "The old fashioned way" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) Martin, Civilla Durfee (Jordan Falls, Nova Scotia, August 21, 1866--March 9, 1948, Atlanta, Georgia). Daughter of James N. and Irene (Harding) Holden. She married Rev. John F. Geddes, Congregational minister of Coventryvilee, N.Y. at Jordan Falls Methodist Church, Shelbourne Co., Nova Scotia, on May 19, 1891. There is thus far no information about their marriage and its end. After several years of teaching school, she married Walter Stillman Martin, a Baptist minister, and traveled with him in evangelistic work. However, because of frail health, she was compelled to remain home much of the time. In 1916, they became members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). They had one son, A.G. Martin. In her writing, she used only her initials, "C.D." rather than her full name of that of her composer-husband. She is reputed to have written several hundred hymns and religious songs. Her first one, "God Will Take Care of You," written in 1904 became world-famous. Her husband wrote the music for this and many of her other hymns. "His Eye is on the Sparrow" written in 1906 and set to music by Charles H. Gabriel, has also received wide acclaim. In addition to the above, "Like As A Father," "A Welcome for Me," and "The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power" are among her better-known hymns. Her husband and collaborator, W.S. Martin (1862-1935) preceded her in death. For the last 29 years of her life, she made her home in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was a member of the First Christian Church. Her funeral was held on March 10, 1948 at Spring Hill and the interment was in the West View Cemetery in Atlanta. --Carlton C. Buck, DNAH Archives and email from Rev. Lester M. Settle (Glenholme, Nova Scotia) to Mary Louise VanDyke 18 September 2008, DNAH Archives.

Harry D. Clarke

1888 - 1957 Hymnal Number: d1 Author of "Draw the bolt" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) Orphaned at an early age, Clarke ran away from the orphanage and worked at sea for almost 10 years. He eventually moved to London, then to America. He attended the Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, Illinois, then went into composing, music publishing, and evangelism. He served as song leader for Harry vom Bruch and Billy Sunday, being so impressed by Sunday that he established the Billy Sunday Memorial Chapel in Sioux City, Iowa (where he served as pastor until 1945). Clarke also worked in the evangelism field in Garards Fort, Pennsylvania, and South Milford, Indiana. © The Cyber Hymnal™. Used by permission. (www.hymntime.com)

Lela B. Long

1896 - 1951 Person Name: L. Long Hymnal Number: d19 Author of "Jesus is the sweetest name I know" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) She’s an almost unknown personality, except for the song associated with her name. Perhaps that’s the way Lela B. Long wanted it…to be faceless, almost nameless, in favor of making His name more well-known. “Jesus Is the Sweetest Name I Know” must have been a statement her family and friends could remember her saying, but we don’t have to rely on any published biography to learn this. She recorded her opinion for us. What opinions do I have that I would want to survive me? Just any pontification probably wouldn’t last, but what makes Lela’s opinion notable is that it strikes a chord with us still today. There’s not much information on Lela B. Long, other than a record with the words she wrote that suggests the song was written prior to 1925. That would suggest she was an adult who was born in the late 19th or early 20th Century, and went on to eternity prior to the end of the 20th Century. She must have had some affinity with people she knew, including unspoken names she says in verse one had moved her emotionally. But, she makes it clear that those names paled next to ‘Jesus’. Why would His name be so special to Long? Had she been affected by poor health, or events of her time like World War I, which robbed its survivors of friends and loved ones? What life circumstances drew her toward Him? We only know that she wrote three verses and a refrain (see the link below for access to them) to carry her message, though most often we hear only the refrain. She has us say repeatedly throughout the refrain that he’s genuine, as authentic and loveable as one can imagine Him. Isn’t that really the root of love, that this person to whom I cling is not a fake, but true? He’s worth my worship, she declares. Can I identify with what Lela says? I live in a different time than her, but what’s really different? There are still people around, many of whom move me in different ways, as some evidently did for Lela Long in her life. She must have experienced illness, or other calamities that threatened her faith. War? The war she must have known was once known as the ‘war to end all wars’. Did it really accomplish this? How sweet was its conclusion for those who signed the peace at Versailles (see picture), if they lived to see what happened a generation later? Lies like that are too common. Likewise, health is too fragile for me to become complacent in my comfort. I must find something that won’t go sour. Lela did. It’s still pretty tasty, even decades after she savored it. Link to the song’s scant history and the three verses that accompany the chorus-refrain: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/j/i/s/jisnikno.htm Posted by David Cain at 12:23 PM http://songscoops.blogspot.com/2012/02/jesus-is-sweetest-name-i-know-lela-b.html

Herbert G. Tovey

1888 - 1972 Hymnal Number: d10 Author of "The call of the Master" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.)

Emily Crawford

1864 - 1927 Person Name: E. May Grimes Hymnal Number: d33 Author of "My life work" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) Emily May Grimes Crawford is described in the author index of the Book of Common Praise (Toronto, 1938) as a Canadian Anglican [as author of "The Master comes! He calls for thee], which she altogether was nor was not. The hymn was first published in London by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1890, before Emily May Grimes had ever left her native England. In 1893, she went to South Africa under CMS sponsorship to work among the Pondo tribe; then, in 1904, she married T.W.W. Crawford, M.D., and went to work with him among the Kikuyu of Kenya. Her career thus far is outlined in Julian (1907), p. 1712. The mission station at which the bride arrived had indeed been started by the CMS, but had been turned over to the newly-formed missionary department of the Church of England in Canada (MSCC); most of her colleagues were Canadian-born like her husband--to add a grace note of confusion--his brother! Both hailed from western Ontario, where Thomas had trained in medicine at the University of Western Ontario (London), while Edward took theology at Huron College. Thus all three of them were working under Canadian sponsorship until 1913, when Thomas and Emily left for England, she in quest of treatment for arthritis, he for further medical training--which perhaps he needed, if he thought the English climate would help anybody's arthritis! Rev. E.W. Crawford continued on in Kenya; his subsequent career can be traced through Crockford's Clerical Dictionary. Whatever plans for their future they may have made were necessarily altered by the outbreak of World War I, which found, and kept, them in England. They may have intended to come to Canada when they could, but in fact they never did: they were still in England when Emily died in 1927. She wrote, and the British Museum Catalogue lists, under her maiden name, all the books she published after her marriage. Although at the time a woman automatically acquired the citizenship of the man she married, Emily was never a Canadian citizen: no such status existed until twenty years after she died. Although she and Dr. Crawford hailed from different parts of the Empire, they were both British subjects by birth, and remained such. Therefore her connection with Canada was never more than indirect, though this may not have been what she intended. --Hugh McKellar, DNAH Archives

Benjamin A. Baur

1897 - 1972 Hymnal Number: d20 Author of "And I know Jesus saves me" in Gospel Songs of Distinction (3rd ed.) Benjamin A. Baur was born on September 20, 1897, Akron, Ohio. he pastored at the Elim Tabernacle on Broadway in Rochester, New York, from around 1928 to 1972. He died on October 18, 1972, Rochester, New York. His works include Campaign Choruses No. 2 © Cyber Hymnal™ (www.hymntime.com/tch)