Person Results

W. T. Giffe

1848 - 1926 Hymnal Number: 64 Composer of "[Stand by the Right!]" in Always Welcome Born: June 28, 1848, Portland, Indiana. Died: July 13, 1926, Seattle, Washington. Buried: Mount Hope Cemetery, Logansport, Indiana. Giffe grew up in College Corners, Indiana (near Portland), and served in the Army during the closing days of the American civil war. After the war, he attended Liber College, and studied law for two years. While in college, he was a member of the college glee club, and took lessons in the college singing school. Later, he studied with teachers such as J. W. Suffern, George Root, Luther Emerson, Horatio Palmer, and Henry Perkins. Giffe had a fine baritone voice, and was in demand as a concert singer. He soon became popular as a chorus director and convention conductor. His first book for singing schools was New Favorite, which sold thousands of copies. The Oliver Ditson Company of Boston, Massachusetts, published many of his early works, but Giffe went on to form his own publishing house, the Home Music Company, in Logansport, Indiana. He also edited the Home Music Journal for several years. Later, Giffe became supervisor of music in the public schools in his home town. And he was one of three men selected to deliver an address in Logansport, Indiana, at the memorial services for assassinated president William McKinley. Giffe and his wife Nancy had no children. His works include: The Brilliant, 1874 Crown of Gold, with Frank Davis (Logansport, Indiana: Home Music Company, 1892) The New Deal, with Louis Eichhorn (Logansport, Indiana: Home Music Company, 1898) A Practical Course in Harmony and Musical Composition --www.hymntime.com/tch

A. J. Abbey

1825 - 1887 Hymnal Number: 58 Composer of "[I've a home far away in the regions immortal]" in Always Welcome Alonzo Judson Abbey, USA 1825-1887 Professor Abbey was a music teacher, collector, writer-composer, tune book compiler and sacred music publisher. George F Root often edited his published works. John Perry

R. G. Staples

b. 1833 Hymnal Number: 59 Composer of "[Our sins, alas! how strong they are!]" in Always Welcome Robert Griffin Staples. He was born Robert Griffin on January 24, 1833 in Washington DC. Both of his parents died in a carriage accident when he was an infant; he was then adopted by his mother's sister, Mary Ann King, and her husband, Samuel Johnson Staples and he was given the name Robert Griffin Staples. He was a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War and after the war was promoted to Major. He then worked as chief clerk in the Portsmouth United States Navy Yard. Religion was an important part of his life, as well as music. He died June 20, 1891 in Portsmouth, VA. Dianne Shapiro, from Jean Brickey (great-granddaughter)

Robert P. Kerr

1850 - 1923 Person Name: Rev. Robert Kerr Hymnal Number: 6 Author of "The Peerless Name" in Always Welcome Born: 1850, Greensboro, Alabama. Buried: Mount Olivet Cemetery , Nashville, Tennessee. Kerr, Robert P., D.D., b. at Greensborough, Alabama, graduated at Union Theological Seminary, Va., 1873, and was ordained by the Presbytery of Lafayette, 1874. His Hymns of the Ages, a collection on conservative Evangelical lines which hardly justified its title, was published in N.Y., 1891. In it appeared his hymn,"Blessed country, home of Jesus," 1891, A later hymn, "Galilean King and Prophet," is dated 1901. [Rev. L. F. Benson, D.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

James L. Orr

Person Name: J. L. Orr Hymnal Number: 77 Author of "Hosanna to Jesus" in Always Welcome

J. H. Leslie

Hymnal Number: 44 Composer of "["I am sweeping thro' the gates"]" in Always Welcome

Arthur W. French

Hymnal Number: 27 Author of "Flash the Toplights" in Always Welcome 19th Century

Mrs. C. L. Shacklock

Hymnal Number: 25 Author of "The Gate of Prayer" in Always Welcome

Mary E. Kail

1828 - 1890 Person Name: Mrs. Mary E. Kail Hymnal Number: 7 Author of "Ring, Joy-Bells, Ring!" in Always Welcome Mary Elizabeth Harper Kail, Circa 1828-1890 Born: 1827 or 1828, Washington, DC. Died: January 28, 1890, Washington, DC, or Ohio. Daughter of Andrew Harper and Mary McDermott-Roe (daughter of Cornelius McDermott-Roe, a laborer who worked for George Washington). Mary’s father died young, possibly of malaria, while Mary and her sister Virginia were children. Mary and Virginia moved together to Carroll County, Ohio, and in 1843 Mary married Gabriel Kail (1814-88). By 1878, Mary was editor of the Connotton Valley Times in Carroll County. In the late 1880s, Mary was a clerk for the United States Treasury Department; she lost that job in September 1885 due to a change in administration. Her works include: Crown Our Heroes, and Other Poems, 1887 --www.hymntime.com/tch/