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R. E. Winsett

1876 - 1952 Hymnal Number: 600 Arranger of "[Life is like a mountain railroad]" in Special Sacred Selections Robert Emmett Winsett (January 15, 1876 — June 26, 1952 (aged 76) was an American composer and publisher of Gospel music. Winsett was born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, and graduated from the Bowman Normal School of Music in 1899. He founded his own publishing company in 1903, and his first publication, Winsett's Favorite Songs, quickly became popular among the Baptist and Pentecostal churches of the American South. Pentecostal Power followed in 1907; that year Winsett completed postgraduate work at a conservatory. He married Birdie Harris in 1908, and had three sons and two daughters with her. He settled in Fort Smith, Arkansas, continuing to compose gospel songs, of which he would write over 1,000 in total. He became a minister in 1923, and was affiliated with the Church of God (Seventh Day). Birdie Harris died late in the 1920s, and shortly thereafter Winsett moved back to Tennessee. He founded a new company in Chattanooga, and published more shape note music books. He remarried, to Mary Ruth Edmonton, in 1930, and had three further children. Winsett's final publication, Best of All (1951), sold over 1 million copies, and in total his books sold over ten million copies. His song "Jesus Is Coming Soon" won a Dove Award for Gospel Song of the Year at the 1969 awards. He has been inducted into the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame. --www.wikipedia.org

W. S. Pitts

1830 - 1918 Person Name: W. S. P. Hymnal Number: 579 Author of "The Church In The Wildwood" in Special Sacred Selections William Savage Pitts MD USA 1830-1918. Born at Yates, NY, the son of Puritans, he was the 8th of nine children. He had musical ability from an early age, taking formal music lessons from a graduate of the Boston Handel & Hadyn Society. At age 19, he traveled with his family to Rock County, WI, where he worked as a rural music schoolteacher in Union, WI. He taught for several years, there and at singing schools, and for brass bands, composing much of their music. In 1857 he traveled to Fredericksburg, IA, to visit his fiancee, Ann Eliza Warren, a teacher. Along the way he stopped his horse-drawn wagon at Bradford, IA, to rest. He walked across a field and saw a picturesque wooded valley formed by the Cedar River. Viewing the spot, he envisioned a church building there. He couldn’’t get the image out of his mind. Returning home to WI, he wrote out the words to a poem about the envisioned scene, calling it “Church in the wildwood”, for his own sake. He was then at rest about it. In 1862, he was married in Union, WI, and he and his wife moved to Fredericksburg to be near her elderly parents. Upon returning to Iowa, Pitts stopped along the route at the same location he had five years before to see it again. He was surprised to see a little church being built, and being painted brown. He met with the builders and asked why it was being painted brown, finding out that it was the cheapest paint they could find.. money being tight. The church builders, learning about his poem written several years earlier, asked him to bring his church choir to the dedication and sing a dedicatory song. In 1863 he did so. This was the first time the song was sung in public. The Pitts remained at Fredersicksburg, IA, for 44 years and had five children: Nellie, Grace, Alice, William, and Kate. Pitts served as mayor of Fredericksburg for seven years, as school treasurer for 26 years, wrote a biographical local history, and was a Master Freemason. In 1865 Pitts moved to Chicago to enroll at Rush Medical College. While there, to pay expenses, he offered several songs he had written to a music publisher, who chose his song “Little brown church in the vale”, and he sold the rights to his song for $25. He completed medical school, graduating in 1868, but the song was largely forgotten for several decades. Pitts practiced medicine in Fredericksburg until 1906. His wife died in 1886, and he remarried to Martha Amelia Pierce Grannis in 1887. They moved to Clarion, IA, in 1906. She died in 1909. Pitts then moved to Brooklyn, NY, to be with his son, William, who was working for the U. S. War Department. Pitts joined Fredericksburg’s Baptist Church in 1871, then the Congregational Church in Clarion, IA, in 1906, and later the Dyker Heights Congregational Church in Brooklyn, NY, in 1909. He occasionally performed his most famous song. He died at Brooklyn, NY, but was buried in Fredericksburg, IA. John Perry

Jack P. Scholfield

1882 - 1972 Person Name: J. P. S. Hymnal Number: 319 Author of "Saved! Saved!" in Special Sacred Selections

George C. Stebbins

1846 - 1945 Hymnal Number: 260 Composer of "[In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!]" in Special Sacred Selections Stebbins studied music in Buffalo and Rochester, New York, then became a singing teacher. Around 1869, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, to join the Lyon and Healy Music Company. He also became the music director at the First Baptist Church in Chicago. It was in Chicago that he met the leaders in the Gospel music field, such as George Root, Philip Bliss, & Ira Sankey. At age 28, Stebbins moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became music director at the Claredon Street Baptist Church; the pastor there was Adoniram Gordon. Two years later, Stebbins became music director at Tremont Temple in Boston. Shortly thereafter, he became involved in evangelism campaigns with Moody and others. Around 1900, Stebbins spent a year as an evangelist in India, Egypt, Italy, Palestine, France and England. (www.hymntime.com/tch)

M. P. Ferguson

1850 - 1932 Person Name: Manie Payne Ferguson Hymnal Number: 256 Author of "Blessed Quietness" in Special Sacred Selections 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

George William Warren

1828 - 1902 Person Name: George W. Warren Hymnal Number: 29 Composer of "NATIONAL HYMN" in Special Sacred Selections George W. Warren (b. Albany, NY, 1828; d. New York, 1902) received his general education at Racine College in Wisconsin, but as a musician he was largely self-trained. An organist in a number of Episcopal churches, he played the organ for thirty years (1870-1900) at St. Thomas Church in New York City. Warren composed anthems and liturgical service music; his hymn tunes were collected in Warren's Hymns and Tunes as Sung in St. Thomas Church (1888). Bert Polman

James McGranahan

1840 - 1907 Hymnal Number: 308 Composer of "[O, the bitter pain and sorrow]" in Special Sacred Selections James McGranahan USA 1840-1907. Born at West Fallowfield, PA, uncle of Hugh McGranahan, and son of a farmer, he farmed during boyhood. Due to his love of music his father let him attend singing school, where he learned to play the bass viol. At age 19 he organized his first singing class and soon became a popular teacher in his area of the state. He became a noted musician and hymns composer. His father was reluctant to let him pursue this career, but he soon made enough money doing it that he was able to hire a replacement farmhand to help his father while he studied music. His father, a wise man, soon realized how his son was being used by God to win souls through his music. He entered the Normal Music School at Genesco, NY, under William B Bradbury in 1861-62. He met Miss Addie Vickery there. They married in 1863, and were very close to each other their whole marriage, but had no children. She was also a musician and hymnwriter in her own right. For a time he held a postmaster’s job in Rome, PA. In 1875 he worked for three years as a teacher and director at Dr. Root’s Normal Music Institute. He because well-known and successful as a result, and his work attracted much attention. He had a rare tenor voice, and was told he should train for the operatic stage. It was a dazzling prospect, but his friend, Philip Bliss, who had given his wondrous voice to the service of song for Christ for more than a decade, urged him to do the same. Preparing to go on a Christmas vacation with his wife, Bliss wrote McGranahan a letter about it, which McGranahan discussed with his friend Major Whittle. Those two met in person for the first time at Ashtubula, OH, both trying to retrieve the bodies of the Bliss’s, who died in a bridge-failed train wreck. Whittle thought upon meeting McGranahan, that here is the man Bliss has chosen to replace him in evangelism. The men returned to Chicago together and prayed about the matter. McGranahan gave up his post office job and the world gained a sweet gospel singer/composer as a result. McGranahan and his wife, and Major Whittle worked together for 11 years evangelizing in the U.S., Great Britain, and Ireland. They made two visits to the United Kingdom, in 1880 and 1883, the latter associated with Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey evangelistic work. McGranahan pioneered use of the male choir in gospel song. While holding meetings in Worcester, MA, he found himself with a choir of only male voices. Resourcefully, he quickly adapted the music to those voices and continued with the meetings. The music was powerful and started what is known as male choir and quartet music. Music he published included: “The choice”, “Harvest of song”, “Gospel Choir”,, “Gospel hymns #3,#4, #5, #6” (with Sankey and Stebbins), “Songs of the gospel”, and “Male chorus book”. The latter three were issued in England. In 1887 McGranahan’s health compelled him to give up active work in evangelism. He then built a beautiful home, Maplehurst, among friends at Kinsman, OH, and settled down to the composition of music, which would become an extension of his evangelistic work. Though his health limited his hours, of productivity, some of his best hymns were written during these days. McGranahan was a most lovable, gentle, modest, unassuming, gentleman, and a refined and cultured Christian. He loved good fellowship, and often treated guests to the most delightful social feast. He died of diabetes at Kinsman, OH, and went home to be with his Savior. John Perry

Ellis J. Crum

1928 - 2011 Hymnal Number: 253 Arranger of "[What a friend we have in Jesus]" in Special Sacred Selections

Helen Howarth Lemmel

1864 - 1961 Person Name: Helen H. Lemmel Hymnal Number: 214 Author of "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" in Special Sacred Selections Born: November 14, 1863, Wardle, England. Died: November 1, 1961, at her home in Seattle, Washington. Buried: Lemmel was cremated, but her final resting place is unknown to us. Daughter of a Methodist minister, Helen emigrated from England with her family to America when she was 12 years old. They first settled in Mississippi, then relocated to Wisconsin. She moved to Seattle in 1904, and for three years was music critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. While interviewing German singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Helen was persuaded to go to Europe. A gifted singer, she studied music in Germany for four years. Upon her return to America, she began giving concerts and traveling on the Chautauqua circuit. Eventually, she became a vocal music teacher at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. After retirement, she moved to Seattle, Washington, where she was a member of the Ballard Baptist Church. Among her works are a hymnal used by evangelist Billy Sunday for over a decade. Lemmel and a women’s choral group she directed were part of Sunday’s group at the peak of his career. Sources: Hustad, pp. 272-73 Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 3, 1961 © The Cyber Hymnal™ (hymntime.com/tch)

Barney Elliott Warren

1867 - 1951 Person Name: B. E. W. Hymnal Number: 318 Author of "Joy Unspeakable" in Special Sacred Selections Barney Elliott Warren was an American Christian hymnwriter and minister. See more in Wikipedia