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John H. Sammis

1846 - 1919 Person Name: J. H. Sammis Topics: Devotional or Worship Author of "Trust and Obey" in Assembly Songs John H. Sammis was born in Brooklyn. He moved to Logansport, Indiana when ye was 22, where he was converted to Christianity. He was active in the Y.M.C.A., serving as secretary for the Terre Haute Association and later becoming State Secretary. After this, he studied at Lane and McCormack seminaries and was ordained in the Presbyterian church at Glidden, Iowa. He also pastored churches in Indianapolis, Grand Haven, MI, Red Wing and St. Paul, Minn. In 1909 he became associated with the Los Angeles Bible Institute. He wrote more that 100 hymns. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916)

Jennie Evelyn Hussey

1874 - 1958 Topics: Devotional or Worship Author of "Lead Me to Calvary" in Assembly Songs Jane Evelyn Hussy was born 8 February 1874 in Henniker, N.H. She was an invalid from rheumatism. She began writing verse as a child. The first were published when she was thirteen. At sixteen she began to write stories, articles and designs for crochet needlework for magazines. In 1898 her first hymns were published. She was a member of the Society of Friends. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916)

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Topics: Devotional or Worship Composer of "[There is a fountain filled with blood]" in Assembly Songs Dr. Lowell Mason (the degree was conferred by the University of New York) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man. Lowell Mason was born in Medfield, Mass., January 8, 1792. From childhood he had manifested an intense love for music, and had devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself according to such opportunities as were available to him. At the age of twenty he found himself filling a clerkship in a banking house in Savannah, Ga. Here he lost no opportunity of gratifying his passion for musical advancement, and was fortunate to meet for the first time a thoroughly qualified instructor, in the person of F. L. Abel. Applying his spare hours assiduously to the cultivation of the pursuit to which his passion inclined him, he soon acquired a proficiency that enabled him to enter the field of original composition, and his first work of this kind was embodied in the compilation of a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was offered unavailingly to publishers in Philadelphia and in Boston. Fortunately for our musical advancement it finally secured the attention of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, and by its committee was submitted to Dr. G. K. Jackson, the severest critic in Boston. Dr. Jackson approved most heartily of the work, and added a few of his own compositions to it. Thus enlarged, it was finally published in 1822 as The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, which he thus explains, "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." President Winchester, of the Handel and Haydn Society, sold the copyright for the young man. Mr. Mason went back to Savannah with probably $500 in his pocket as the preliminary result of his Boston visit. The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England, and through this means entering into the church choirs, to whom it opened up a higher field of harmonic beauty. Its career of success ran through some seventeen editions. On realizing this success, Mason determined to accept an invitation to come to Boston and enter upon a musical career. This was in 1826. He was made an honorary member of the Handel and Haydn Society, but declined to accept this, and entered the ranks as an active member. He had been invited to come to Boston by President Winchester and other musical friends and was guaranteed an income of $2,000 a year. He was also appointed, by the influence of these friends, director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. Finally he made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church, and gave up the guarantee, but again friendly influence stepped in and procured for him the position of teller at the American Bank. In 1827 Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that was to win for him as has been already stated the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Although this may seem rather a bold claim it is not too much under the circumstances. Mr. Mason might have been in the average ranks of musicianship had he lived in Europe; in America he was well in advance of his surroundings. It was not too high praise (in spite of Mason's very simple style) when Dr. Jackson wrote of his song collection: "It is much the best book I have seen published in this country, and I do not hesitate to give it my most decided approbation," or that the great contrapuntist, Hauptmann, should say the harmonies of the tunes were dignified and churchlike and that the counterpoint was good, plain, singable and melodious. Charles C. Perkins gives a few of the reasons why Lowell Mason was the very man to lead American music as it then existed. He says, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them." The personality of Dr. Mason was of great use to the art and appreciation of music in this country. He was of strong mind, dignified manners, sensitive, yet sweet and engaging. Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage. Dr. Mason visited a number of the music schools in Europe, studied their methods, and incorporated the best things in his own work. He founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Dr. Mason resided in Boston from 1826 to 1851, when he removed to New York. Not only Boston benefited directly by this enthusiastic teacher's instruction, but he was constantly traveling to other societies in distant cities and helping their work. He had a notable class at North Reading, Mass., and he went in his later years as far as Rochester, where he trained a chorus of five hundred voices, many of them teachers, and some of them coming long distances to study under him. Before 1810 he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals. As a composer of solid, enduring church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful this country has introduced. He was a deeply pious man, and was a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Mason in 1817 married Miss Abigail Gregory, of Leesborough, Mass. The family consisted of four sons, Daniel Gregory, Lowell, William and Henry. The two former founded the publishing house of Mason Bros., dissolved by the death of the former in 1869. Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin. Dr. William Mason was one of the most eminent musicians that America has yet produced. Dr. Lowell Mason died at "Silverspring," a beautiful residence on the side of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, August 11, 1872, bequeathing his great musical library, much of which had been collected abroad, to Yale College. --Hall, J. H. (c1914). Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

W. Howard Doane

1832 - 1915 Person Name: W. H. Doane Topics: Devotional or Worship Composer of "[Jesus, keep me near the cross]" in Assembly Songs An industrialist and philanthropist, William H. Doane (b. Preston, CT, 1832; d. South Orange, NJ, 1915), was also a staunch supporter of evangelistic campaigns and a prolific writer of hymn tunes. He was head of a large woodworking machinery plant in Cincinnati and a civic leader in that city. He showed his devotion to the church by supporting the work of the evangelistic team of Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey and by endowing Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and Denison University in Granville, Ohio. An amateur composer, Doane wrote over twenty-two hundred hymn and gospel song tunes, and he edited over forty songbooks. Bert Polman ============ Doane, William Howard, p. 304, he was born Feb. 3, 1832. His first Sunday School hymn-book was Sabbath Gems published in 1861. He has composed about 1000 tunes, songs, anthems, &c. He has written but few hymns. Of these "No one knows but Jesus," "Precious Saviour, dearest Friend," and "Saviour, like a bird to Thee," are noted in Burrage's Baptist Hymn Writers. 1888, p. 557. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) =================== Doane, W. H. (William Howard), born in Preston, Connecticut, 1831, and educated for the musical profession by eminent American and German masters. He has had for years the superintendence of a large Baptist Sunday School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he resides. Although not a hymnwriter, the wonderful success which has attended his musical setting of numerous American hymns, and the number of his musical editions of hymnbooks for Sunday Schools and evangelistic purposes, bring him within the sphere of hymnological literature. Amongst his collections we have:— (1) Silver Spray, 1868; (2) Pure Gold, 1877; (3) Royal Diadem, 1873; (4) Welcome Tidings, 1877; (5) Brightest and Best, 1875; (6) Fountain of Song; (7) Songs of Devotion, 1870; (8) Temple Anthems, &c. His most popular melodies include "Near the Cross," "Safe in the Arms of Jesus," "Pass me Not," "More Love to Thee," "Rescue the Perishing," "Tell me the Old, Old Story," &c. - John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

S. J. Vail

1818 - 1883 Person Name: Silas J. Vail Topics: Devotional or Worship Composer of "[Thou my everlasting Portion]" in Songs of Praise In his youth Silas Jones Vail learned the hatter's trade at Danbury, Ct. While still a young man, he went to New York and took employment in the fashionable hat store of William H. Beebe. Later he established himself in business as a hatter at 118 Fulton Street, where he was for many years successful. But the conditions of trade changed, and he could not change with them. After his failure in 1869 or 1870 he devoted his entire time and attention to music. He was the writer of much popular music for use in churches and Sunday schools. Pieces of music entitled "Scatter Seeds of Kindness," "Gates Ajar," "Close to Thee," "We Shall Sleep, but not Forever," and "Nothing but Leaves" were known to all church attendants twenty years ago. Fanny Crosby, the blind authoress, wrote expressly for him many of the verses he set to music. --Vail, Henry H. (Henry Hobart). Genealogy of some of the Vail family descended from Jeremiah Vail at Salem, Mass., 1639, p. 234.

John Zundel

1815 - 1882 Topics: Devotional or Worship Composer of "[Love divine, all love excelling]" in Assembly Songs John Zundel; b. 1815, near Stuttgart, Germany; organist in Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1847 to 1878; d. Cannstadt, Germany, 1882 Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1908

M. J. Harris

1865 - 1919 Person Name: M. J. H. Topics: Devotional or Worship Author of "I Will Praise Him" in Assembly Songs Margaret Jenkins Harris USA 1865-1919. Born in Rushville, IL, she married evangelist, John Harris, and they were active in holiness meetings as musicians and song evangelists. She played the organ for accompaniment to their duets. She was also known as an effective preacher with strong messages. She was a member of the Iowa Holiness Association. She and her husband served as music directors for the 1901 General Holiness Convention in Chicago, IL. She also edited the “Glorious Gospel In Song” hymnbook for the Christian Witness Publishing Company of Chicago. She died in Miami, FL. John Perry

Thomas O. Chisholm

1866 - 1960 Person Name: T. O. Chisholm Topics: Devotional or Worship Author of "Oh, to Be Like Thee" in Assembly Songs Thomas O. Chisholm was born in Franklin, Kentucky in 1866. His boyhood was spent on a farm and in teaching district schools. He spent five years as editor of the local paper at Franklin. He was converted to Christianity at the age of 26 and soon after was business manager and office editor of the "Pentecostal Herald" of Louisville, Ky. In 1903 he entered the ministry of the M. E. Church South. His aim in writing was to incorporate as much as Scripture as possible and to avoid flippant or sentimental themes. Dianne Shapiro, from "The Singers and Their Songs: sketches of living gospel hymn writers" by Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (Chicago: The Rodeheaver Company, 1916) ============================== Signed letter from Chisholm dated 9 August 1953 located in the DNAH Archives.

M. P. Ferguson

1850 - 1932 Topics: Devotional or Worship Author of "Blessed Quietness" in Assembly Songs Manie Payne Ferguson United Kingdom 1850-1932. Born in Carlow, Ireland, in 1883 she married Theodore Pollock Ferguson, a past Presbyterian minister from Ohio, who had become an itinerant evangelical preacher. They moved to Los Angeles, CA, in 1885. He became a pioneer leader in the American Holiness Movement, a Christian evangelist, and social worker, founding, along with her husband, the non-denominational Peniel Mission in 1886. In 1894 they received a significant financial donation from George Studd allowing them to expand the mission. They constructed a 900-seat auditorium and ministry centre there in Los Angeles. They partnered with Studd and Phineas Bresee, each acting as a superintendent of the mission organization. In 1894 Dr. Joseph Widney, President of USC, led the dedication Praise service, and Bresee preached the later service. Widney and Bresee separated from the mission in 1895 to form the Church of the Nazarene, and Manie Fergusion provided primary leadership of the Peniel Mission. The mission provided ministry especially for single women, who lived in rented rooms near the auditorium, where evangelical services were held. The Fergusions managed to live on income from three small houses they owned, and mission rents and donations covered mission expenses. Street-corner meetings were held in the afternoon, evangelical services at night, and a meal was served afterward. Converts were asked to join a local church of their choice. Manie continued the mission work after her husband's death until her own death. In 1947 the mission became part of the World Gospel Mission enterprise. Manie wrote many poems and also authored hymn lyrics. She died in Los Angeles. John Perry

C. G. Gläser

1784 - 1829 Person Name: Carl G. Glaser Topics: Devotional or Worship Composer of "AZMON" in Songs of Praise Carl Gotthelf Gläser Germany 1781-1829. Born at Weissenfels, Burgenlandkreis, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany, he received musical training from his father, after which he attended St. Thomas school in Leipzig. He became an author and composer. At Barmen he taught voice, piano, and violin. He also wrote and conducted chorale music. He died at Barmen. John Perry