When was Anna Warner born? And what did she write?

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Tue, 04/13/2010 - 05:51 — Haruo

I'm preparing the program for our Evergreen Hymn Sing #3, "TO GOD BE THE GLORY", scheduled for a week from next Sunday at Fremont Baptist. Although the main focus will be on the life and hymns of Fanny Crosby, I've added "and the class of 1915" to the heading in recognition that not only Fanny but also her best man, William H. Doane, and her contemporary Anna B. Warner graduated from this life in that year (and E. Margaret Clarkson, whose "Sing praise to the Father" we will sing to Doane's TO GOD BE THE GLORY tune, was born that year).

But how much of a contemporary of Fanny's was Anna? Our church's hymnal says 1920 (and I see that in a few other places), in which case they were true, full-blooded contemporaries. Much as I would like it to be so, I have grave doubts. On the other hand, the Cyber Hymnal says 1827-1915, and the Hymnary says 1824-1915.

Anybody out there know for sure?

And while we're on the subject, I know Bradbury supplied both the tune and the refrain text, but I'm not entirely clear which stanzas are by Warner, nor what order they originally appeared in. My impression is that probably Warner's verses were

Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong; They are weak but he is strong.

Jesus loves me! Loves me still, Though I’m very weak and ill,
That I might from sin be free Bled and died upon the tree.

Jesus loves me! He who died Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin, Let His little child come in.

Jesus loves me! He will stay Close beside me all the way;
Thou hast bled and died for me, I will henceforth live for Thee.

in that order, and that the verses beginning

Jesus loves me! This I know, As He loved so long ago,
Taking children on His knee, Saying, “Let them come to Me.”

Jesus loves me still today, Walking with me on my way,
Wanting as a friend to give Light and love to all who live.

were added later (when? where?) by David Rutherford McGuire (who was he?)...


Comments

Tue, 04/13/2010 - 10:09 — dianneshapiro

In Hymnary, we use Library of Congress name authorities for our names (and dates) if we can find them. The authorities can be searched at http://authorities.loc.gov. In the 670 fields, the cataloger cites the sources where they got their information from. In this case, the 1824 date comes from "BAL" (I'm not sure what this stands for) and "MWA/NAIP files" which is the American Antiquarian Association's North American Imprints Program.

According to the Psalter Hymnal Handbook, "Jesus Loves Me" was first printed in the novel "Say and Seal" I was able to access this book digitally through the "Wright American Fiction" database through the Calvin College Library but I don't have the time to go through it to find the text. You may be able to get a hold of this book through your library.

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 00:04 — KenJ

Perhaps one of the editions onine at the Internet Archive or Google Books will do.

KenJ

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 00:41 — KenJ

"Jesus Loves Me" can be found in the 1860 edition of "Say and Seal", Volume 2, pp. 115-116.

http://www.archive.org/stream/sayandseal00warngoog#page/n118/mode/1up

I didn't check the other editions, but 1860 was the earliest.

KenJ

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 04:22 — Haruo

So it appears that the text was actually

Jesus loves me—this I know,
For the Bible tells me so:
Little ones to him belong,—
They are weak, but he is strong.

Jesus loves me,—he who died
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let his little child come in.

Jesus loves me—loves me still,
Though I’m very weak and ill;
From his shining throne on high
Comes to watch me where I lie.

Jesus loves me,—he will stay
Close beside me all the way.
Then his little child will take
Up to heaven for his dear sake.

I've omitted the quotation marks but otherwise tried to reproduce the accidentals accurately, though it may be I should have put a space between line-final colons and semi-colons and the last letters preceding them. This is the text we'll sing at the hymn-sing on the 25th, with of course Bradbury's refrain and tune. The question of Anna's actual birth year remains open.

Haruo

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 05:24 — KenJ

The Library of Congress Authorities that dianeshapiro cited shows a heavy leaning toward 1824 as the birth year. You can wade through the page I believe dianeshapiro was referencing.

http://authorities.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?AuthRecID=961126&v1=1&HC=1&SEQ=20100414052052&PID=-LoxLAxOafERgmd8ouuYqYyt5Asf

It includes mention of 1827 being an error and more evidence for of 1824 by letters, etc.

Have a look.

KenJ

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 05:34 — KenJ

You seem to have copied exactly except for the "His" you capitalized in the last line of the second verse. In her book, as in other places you copied to above, it was not capitalized. Perhaps I'm being picky, but I think you should really maintain the consistent lowercase used by the author which you followed elsewhere. Very good work copying, though.

KenJ

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 13:45 — Haruo

Yes, it was late and I was sleepy. But pickiness is good. I started by copy-pasting my previous (conjectured) set of Warner verses, then editing them while flipping back and forth to and from the scanned Google book. My original conjecture (based originally probably on copy-pasting from the Cyber Hymnal) had the Divine Pronouns consistently capitalized and I thought I got 'em all but obviously not. I'll go back in now and edit it, so if future readers don't know what you're talking about, that's what happened, folks.

Incidentally, there's a very interesting version of the song, attributed to Frances E. Newton, on p. 169 of One year of Sunday school lessons for young children, 1900, by Florence U. Palmer. This and other pieces of my growing knowledge on this song came from a parallel thread of inquiry I engaged in at the Mudcat Café, here. Masato Sakurai, a Japanese contributor to that folksong discussion forum, not only found the Palmer book, but also the online scan of Bradbury's earliest publication of "Jesus Loves Me", Bradbury's Golden Shower of S.S. Melodies: A New Collection of Hymns and Tunes for the Sabbath School, p. 68, where the text follows Warner (except in punctuation and capitalization) except in v. 4, where Bradbury gives

Jesus loves me; He will stay
Close beside me, all the way
If I love him, when I die
He will take me home on high.
Yes, Jesus loves me, etc.

The Mudcat thread has the transcription of the four verses attributed to Florence E. Newton, too.

Haruo = Leland

Tue, 04/27/2010 - 14:06 — Haruo

In a fit of sleeplessness I went and put the wrong words in the PowerPoint, so we ended up singing vv. 3 & 4 as

Jesus loves me! Loves me still,
Though I’m very weak and ill,
That I might from sin be free
Bled and died upon the tree.

Jesus loves me! He will stay
Close beside me all the way;
Thou hast bled and died for me,
I will henceforth live for Thee.

Still and all, the Hymn-Sing was a wonderful experience. The PowerPoint (in PDF) is accessible here. We raised about $300 to split between the three worthy causes.

Haruo

Thu, 05/06/2010 - 04:14 — KenJ

If the consensus at the Library of Congress isn't enough, how about the words of Anna B. Warner herself in a book she authored entitled Susan Warner ("Elizabeth Wetherell"). Page 69

http://books.google.com/books?id=fBA1PuS-oRYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Anna+Bartlett+Warner%22&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=1&cd=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

seems to be the first mention of the author. It doesn't give exact date, but if you read the before and after text to get the context, you will find that the year 1824 fits very well (as cited at the Library of Congress URL in this thread).

KenJ

Sun, 05/09/2010 - 11:15 — Haruo

Are there specific words on that page that somehow point to Anna's age at the time described? I don't see any. Maybe I just need to read the first 68 pages to see what you mean, if so, let me know. Do we know what year Susan was born?

Sun, 05/09/2010 - 18:00 — KenJ

The years are mentioned sporadically, but I seem to remember that her father was very sick from August to October (following the previous entries back to the last year mentioned, I believe you would find 1824 not too far back) and Susan wrote in her letter (on that page) that he had not mentioned her little sister (little sister Anna--Susan was previously an only (living) child once again after the death of her only living sibling). It goes on to say that her father had not yet seen the new baby and wrote about her little sister to her father. The next entry was March, 1825, I think. I would have to go back to see if Susan's birth year was clearer. I found a picture of Anna's grave but no extra info there.

KenJ

PS. I think the previous page indicates that the father's wife and daughter (Susan) were both anxious to tell him of the new baby. KJ

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