Fanny J. Crosby

From Wiki 5A

Frances Jane Crosby, know as Fanny J. Crosby, was born in New York. She was a blind poet and hymn writer. She wrote many song which have been published in countless song books.

Fanny J. Crosby was born in March 24, 1820, in Southeast Putnam County, New York. She was born to the parents of John and Mercy Crosby. At six weeks old she became blind because of the maltrement of her eyes during a time of the sickness. Her family moved to Ridgefield Connecticut, where they stay for four years, this happen when she was eight years old. At the age of fifteen she went to the New York Institution for the Blind, where she got a good education. She taught in the Institution in 1847, and continued to teach until March 1, 1858. She taught rhetoric, English grammar, and Roman and American history. This was the good developing period in her life. During the vacations of 1852 and 1853, at North Reading, Massachusetts, she wrote many songs for Dr. Geo. F. Root, the teacher of music at the Institution at that time. Some of them are, "Hazel Dell," "The Honeysuckle Glen," "Music in the Air," "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower," "Proud World, Good-bye, I'm Going Home," "Never Forget the Dear Ones," "All Together," and others. While teaching at the Institution she met Hon. Henry Clay, Governor Wm. H. Seward, Presidents Van Buren and Tyler, General Winfield Scott, and other famous people of American history.

In addition to the thousands of hymns that she has written also about eight thousand poems in all, many have not been set to music, she published four volumes of verses. The first was issued came out in 1844, and was titled "The Blind Girl, and Other Poems"; the second volume, "Monterey, and Other Poems," was followed in 1849, and the third volume, "A Wreath of Columbia's Flowers," came out in 1858. The fourth volume, "Bells at Evening and Other Verses," with an added biographical sketch by Rev. Robert Lowry, and a half-tone portrait, in 1897, which brings the fourth edition. The book was published by The Biglow & Main Co., New York.

Fanny married in March 5 of 1858, to Alex. Van Alstyne, who was also a student at the same institution in which she was got a education. Six years later, she began to write Sunday School hymns for Wm. B. Bradbury. Since 1864 she supported herself by writing hymns. She has lived in New York City nearly all her life, where she was "a member of the Old John Street M. E. Church." She spends regular hours on particular days in the office of The Biglow & Main Co., the firm for which she did most of her writing, and for which she has composed over four thousand hymns. Her hymns have been have been used by many of our most popular composers, among them are,

• Wm. B. Bradbury,
• Geo. F. Root,
• Rev. Robert Lowry,
• Ira,
• D. Sankey,
• W. H. Doane,
• J. R. Sweney,
• W. J. Kirkpatrick,
• H. P. Danks,
• Philip Phillips,
• H. P. Main,
• B. C. Unseld, and many others.

Among her most widely-known hymns are named "the following":

• "There's a cry from 'Macedonia,"
• "Never be afraid to speak for Jesus,"
• "I feel like singing all the time,"
• "Lord, at Thy mercy seat,"
• "'Give,' said the little stream,"
• "Jesus the water of life will give,"
• "We are marching on with shield and banner bright,"
• "Pass me not, O gentle Savior,"
• "Jesus, keep me near the cross,"
• "Pass me not, O gentle Savior,"
• "Rescue the Perishing,"
• "Sing with a tuneful spirit,"
• "To the work, to the work,"
• "Praise Him, praise Him,"
• "The Bright Forever,"
• "Blessed Assurance,"
• "Blessed Homeland,"
• "Saved by Grace,"
• "Close to Thee,"
• "Hast thou trimmed thy lamp, my brother?
• "Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, O Lord,"
• "Never say goodbye."

Mr. Van Alstyne, her husband, was said to be a good musician. He died in 1902. Fanny Crosby died on February 12, 1915.