Fanny Crosby, Blind Hymn Writer, Dies
Special to The New York Times.
New York Times   Feb 13, 1915 The New York Times (1851 – 2003) pg. 9. Transcribed by NYI Bussiness Application student Deondra Forrest   

FANNY CROSBY, BLIND HYMN WRITER, DIES

Author of More Than 8,000 Acted Gospel Songs Passes Away in Her 95th Year.

SHOWED TALENT AT EIGHT

Composed  “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” In 15 Minutes—A Skilled Player on the Guitar and Piano.

Special to The New York Times

RIDGEPORT, Conn, Feb 12,--Fanny Crosby, the blind hymn writer, died at her home in this city at 4:30 o’clock this morning. She has been given feeble for the last six months, and of late was very weak. She would have been ninety-five years old if she had lived until March 24th. At her bedside were her niece Mrs. Henry D. Booth, and other members of the family with whom she had made her home for years.

Fanny Crosby was the author of more than 8,000 hymns which have been sung in the Protestant churches through the world, her contributions being so numerous that a quarter of a century ago, hymnbook makers gave her 200 different names in order to make it appear that hymns were the work of other authors. No single person had anywhere near as large contributions to the Gospel songbooks since the day of Charles Wesely or Isaac Watts.
         
Miss Crosby, as she was best known, although she was married in 1858 to Alexander  Van Alstyne, a blind teacher, who died in 1902, was born in Putnam Country, New York, on March 24th 1820. She was christened Frances Jane Crosby. Her blindness was said to be due to the error of a physician who ordered the application of hot poultices to her eyes when she was six months old, thereby destroying her optio nerves.
But the fact that she was blind did not depress the child, and Miss Crosby had said that despite her affliction she could “climb a tree or ride a horse as well as any one.” When she was only eight years old she displayed her talent by this bit of verse:
         
Oh, what happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see
I am resolved in this world
Continued I will be.

How much blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t;
To weep and sigh because I’m blind,
 I cannot and I won’t

Instructor of the Blind

At the age of nineteen Miss Crosby was sent to The New York Institute for the Blind, and became so proficient that she was made an instructor. She never learned to read by the raised letters however. For twelve years she taught English, grammar, rhetoric, Greek, Roman, and American history. It was while at the institution that she met Mr. Van Alstyne. During this period of her career she wrote poetry and secular songs, one of the most popular of the latter being “Roselle the Prairie Flower.” Several of her volumes of poetry were published.
          Fanny Crosby was 45 years old when she wrote her first hymn. Some of the most beautiful and popular of these came to her as by inspiration. It is said that one of the best known hymns, “Safe in the arms of Jesus,” was composed in fifteen minutes, while W. H. Doane, who had written music for many of her hymns, was waiting to take a train. He played on the piano the music for which he wished her to compose the words.
The blind hymn writer had a strong feeling for rhythm and keen enjoyment of music and in her time had been a skilled performer on the guitar and piano. In the case of some of her songs and hymns she composed both words and music. She used to have a sweet soprano voice, and her sense of harmony was so strong that anything like a discord jarred on her ear would even awake her from her sleep.

Some of Her Best Known Hymns.
         
          Some of Miss Crosby’s best known hymns are “Saved by Grace” “Blessed Assurance,” “Rescue the Perishing,” “I am Thine, Oh Lord,” “Just a Word for Jesus.” and “Just Keep Me Near the Cross.” She composed with great rapidity and always had her verses complete before committing them to paper. Many years ago Phillips Brooks gave her seventy-five topics and asked her to write topics on them. She composed every one of the hymns before a line of any of them placed on paper.

          Miss Crosby’s songs and hymns were translated into every language, and have been sung in every country of the world where the Christian religion has reached. Hundreds of thousand who sang her songs, so many of which were published under pen names, did not know that it was a blind woman’s inspiration which they employed to express their Christian faith and hope in song. Among her songs, other than hymns, which were popular fifty years ago, were “Proud World, ” Good-bye, I’m Going Home,” “Hazel Dell,” “The Honey-Suckle Glen,” and “Never Forget The Dear Ones.”   

Before both Houses of Congress Miss Crosby once recited these lines:

O ye. Who here from every state convene, Illustrious band. May we not hope the scene
You now behold will prove to every mind Instructions to hath a ray to cheer the blind.

Miss Crosby was deeply religious, and once in speaking of the manner in which her hymn, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” was composed she said: 
“It was my most successful hymn, and I believe it was dictated by the spirit of the Lord, and that I was born for a mission.”

          Among her close friends Miss Crosby’s had numbered many prominent men, among them Presidents Tyler, Van Buren, and Cleveland. William H. Seward, Gen. Winfred Scott, and Henry Clay. Miss Crosby was honored by the Methodist Church, whish set aside a day on its calendar, known as “Fanny Crosby Day,” which had been regularly observed by special services.

          Throughout her life Miss Crosby’s cheerful spirit was unaffected by her affliction. She once said: “I do not know but that on the whole it has been a good thing that I have been blind. How in the world could I have lived such a helpful life as I have, were it not that I am blind. I am very well satisfied.”

          She remained active almost until her death and in May, 1911, when she was 91 years old, attended a mass meeting, arranged by the Evanglistic Committee, at Carnegie Hall in this city. Miss Crosby’s mother lived to be 102 years , and her grandmother to be 106.

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