Nearer My Home

Author: Alice Cary

Alice Cary (1820-1871) was born and raised in Mount Healthy in Hamilton County, Ohio. Her family had come from Lyme, New Hampshire when her grandfather was given land in return for his service in the Continental Army. She had been nationally recognized as an interpreter of pioneer traditions. Her short story collections depict Mount Healthy as it was transformed from an isolated rural village to a Cincinnati suburb. She and her sister Phoebe wrote for local religious periodicals before Alice moved to New York City. John Greenleaf Whitier praised Alice's stories as "simple, natural, truthful [with] a keen sense of humor and pathos of the comedy and tragedy of life in the country." Her hymn "Along the mountain track of life" was published i… Go to person page >

A crown of glory bright [high], p. 214, i. This hymn, attributed to Alice Cary in most collections of hymns, is claimed by Mr. Hubert Main of New York for Phoebe Cary (p. 214, i.), sister of Alice. It appeared anonymously in a Sunday School hymn book published by the Sunday School Union, N. Y., in 1800.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)