All the Way My Saviour Leads Me Lyrics Fanny J. Crosby, 1875

Fanny J. Crosby

1820-03-24 to 1915

Fanny Crosby was born in Southeast, Putnam County, New York, on March 24, 1820. She lost her sight at about six weeks old after an illness and poor medical treatment. She began writing Sunday school hymns for William B. Bradbury in 1864, and her first hymn appeared that year in The Golden Censer. On March 5, 1858, she married Alexander Van Alstyne, a blind musician she had met at the New York Institution for the Blind. Hymnary counts about eight thousand poems, including more than four thousand hymns for Biglow and Main, and she used nearly two hundred pen names. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology gives her birth year as 1823, which differs from the other sources.

Robert Lowry

1826-03-12 to 1899-11-25

Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia on March 12, 1826, and died in Plainfield, New Jersey, on November 25, 1899. He studied at Lewisburg University and served Baptist churches in West Chester, Pennsylvania, New York City, Brooklyn, Lewisburg and Plainfield. He taught belles lettres at Lewisburg and received an honorary D.D. in 1875. Lowry edited Sunday school songbooks, including Bright Jewels and Pure Gold (with W. Doane), and wrote many gospel tunes. He is best known for Shall We Gather at the River and for the refrain and tune of I Need Thee Every Hour.